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SFI-Sentre for forskningsdrevet innovasjon

ProCardio - Precision Health Center for optimized cardiac care

Alternative title: ProCardio - Senter for innovativ behandling av hjertesykdommer

Awarded: NOK 96.0 mill.

Heart disease can occur at any age and may lead to chronic disease or strike suddenly in the form of cardiac arrest. It is the leading cause of death worldwide. The ProCardio center will contribute with new methods to improve the life prospects of heart patients and prevent cardiac arrest. We will use artificial intelligence to improve the follow-up of the patient and avoid both overtreatment and undertreatment. Many heart diseases have a chronic course with worsening outcome over time such as valve diseases, heart failure, heart muscle diseases and heart damage after cancer treatment. It is important to find the right time to initiate a treatment such as heart valve surgery or insertion of an implantable defibrillator as this will vary individually. ProCardio will develop new methods that will determine each patient's course and optimal time for treatment to reduce suffering and prevent sudden death. At ProCardio, researchers and industrial partners work together to ensure that our ideas become products that benefit patients. Researchers from Oslo University Hospital, the University of Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science, SIMULA and Sørlandet Hospital work together with GE, which produces ultrasound devices for cardiac examinations, Medtronic, which develops implantable defibrillators and the DIPS patient record system. Furthermore, we have SESAM which ensures secure data processing and the Baker Institute from Australia which will contribute with a comprehensive, clinical database. Together we will improve the prognosis of heart disease patients. In 2021, we at ProCardio have started the work of developing logarithms that can process various medical data and through artificial intelligence tell us what the next examination or treatment should be. We also work with the development of hardware and software that will make everyday life easier and more predictable for both therapists and patients. In regards to the pandemic, we have researched how heart function is affected after undergoing Covid-19 infection. We have been active in sports seminars and have started research on the effect of sports on the heart and how we can prevent sudden death in athletes. In 2022, we have started a multicenter research project to explore the outcome of patients who have developed myocarditis after Covid-19 vaccination. We have participated in international conferences and thereby strengthened our projects by international collaboration. In 2023, we have continued to work on developing smarter solutions for the follow-up of heart patients. We have started new studies on drug treatment of difficult rhythm disturbances in patients with mitral valve disease. Furthermore, we are collaborating with industry in a study testing a new drug for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death globally, representing almost one third of all deaths (WHO 2019). There are devastating consequences, in terms of both patients and their families, as well as overwhelming healthcare expenditures with costs for the Norwegian economy of more than EUR 12 billion yearly. Existing and emerging cardiac devices and medications have the potential to significantly improve or even cure serious cardiac conditions. Advanced ICT tools are essential in modern medicine and their use increase rapidly. However, current diagnostic tools and decision support systems fall short in characterizing and profiling individual patients’ disease progression. We propose a new Precision Health Center for cardiology (PROCardio) that will develop, test and validate new tools that can reliably predict an individual patients’ disease progression, estimate risk of sudden cardiac death and provide a longitudinal view of past and future care pathway options enabling optimal disease treatment. In particular, the opportunity to make use of cutting edge technology such as artificial intelligence, has the potential to make critical breakthroughs in the treatment of CVD. The expected impact of the PROCardio centre is spread across a wide range of stakeholders, including commercial companies in ICT and healthcare industry, but most importantly to patients, healthcare providers and payers. PROCardio will enable better and earlier detection of heart disease across the spectrum of cardiac disease by multi-modality monitoring, use of novel techniques including artificial intelligence and machine learning. PROCardio will enable early intervention of therapeutic measures that will improve individual health and improve morbidity and survival in large patient groups and help focusing resources on high risk individuals and avoid under and over-treatment.

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SFI-Sentre for forskningsdrevet innovasjon