On June 30th, the IntelligentCare project consortia gathered at Hospital da Luz Learning Health for the presentation of the CMU Portugal Large Scale Project results. The IntelligentCare project presents an innovative approach to managing multimorbidity (MM) by adopting a patient-centric perspective and striving for optimized allocation of hospital resources, thus promoting the transition to value-based healthcare.
The primary challenge involved developing a patient-centric solution by leveraging analytical methods and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze data derived from electronic health records (EHR) and remotely reported measures such as patient-reported outcomes (PROMs), life events, quality of life, and physical activity. IntelligentCare, to capture additional value, incorporated intelligent sensors and mobile solutions to capture these variables, referred to as additional value variables (AVVs).
The ultimate goal was to create a comprehensive platform that aggregates all patient data, provides suggestions for medical interventions, and generates a risk score for hospitalization based on the patient’s condition.
Nuno André Silva, Head of the Intelligent Care and Complexity Science Center and the innovation area of Hospital da Luz Learning Health delivered the opening remarks. In his introduction, he focused on the project’s objectives and highlighted the pressing challenges an aging population poses. One significant challenge emphasized was the rise in patients with multimorbidity (MM) and the resulting strain on the sustainability of the healthcare sector. Providing some context, he mentioned that according to the SNS (Portuguese Healthcare System), 38% of the Portuguese population is affected by this issue, leading to a greater demand for medical assistance and, consequently, increased healthcare utilization and costs.
The project consortia were represented at the meeting by members of all the involved Institutions, starting with Carlos Amaral of Priberam, who discussed data collection and NLP techniques. Mário Gaspar Silva, from INESC-ID, talked about disease phenotypes and the importance of early signaling and characterization of patients with MM. Plínio Moreno from Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisboa) focused on smart sensing technology. Pedro Ferreira joined remotely from CMU (Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy) and discussed the extraction methodologies for clinical pathways developed along the project. Jaime Machado, from Luz Saúde, presented the IntelligentCare platform that has been developed and which combines all the previous elements. And Bernardo Neves, Internal Medicine Doctor at Hospital da Luz Lisboa, showcased the clinical application with a real-world case study.
Pedro Ferreira, PI of the project at Carnegie Mellon, highlighted the benefits of this collaboration between CMU and Portuguese partners. “The IntelligentCare project brought together a unique multidisciplinary team, including faculty at CMU, faculty in Portuguese Universities, and practitioners in a novel and inspiring way. The leadership of Hospital da Luz was extraordinarily impactful and allowed us to focus the project on outcomes that matter for the hospital and patients. This project exemplifies how one can successfully publish state-of-the-art research immediately used in practice to improve people’s lives. I look forward to working with our Portuguese partners in subsequent research questions that our project identified”.
To close the meeting, Francisca Leite, Director at Hospital da Luz Learning Health, discussed the future and its focus on the impact of AI in the Healthcare sector in the upcoming years. According to her, “The accomplishments of the IntelligentCare project will enable Hospital da Luz to revolutionize multimorbidity management. Integrating AI technologies will ensure every patient receives the care they need while reducing unnecessary costs and strains on our system. This project sets a pioneering example for the broader adoption of AI in healthcare, underscoring how technological innovation can positively impact patient care and system productivity. As we move forward, our goal is to continue incorporating AI across various healthcare domains, ensuring optimized resource allocation, early risk detection, and an overall more sustainable healthcare sector. We are thrilled to see what the future holds and are confident that AI will play a significant role in shaping a more sustainable, effective, and patient-centric healthcare sector in the coming years.”
The CMU Portugal large Scale Project IntelligentCare is led by Hospital da Luz Lisboa/Hospital da Luz Learning Health in collaboration with Priberam, INESC-ID, Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisboa), Instituto Superior Técnico and the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
IntelliGentCare(LISBOA-01-0247-FEDER-045948) is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020) and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the CMU Portugal Program.
