Stowmarket digital agency, Orbital Global, helps pioneer global medical research using AI technology
A Suffolk digital agency is helping to pioneer medical research using AI technology.
Stowmarket-based Orbital Global has joined the Horizon Europe research and innovation consortium, iCARE4CVD, to provide expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), in which it is a recognised world leader.
Led by Novo Nordisk and Maastricht University, iCARE4CVD is made up of of 33 international partners from civil society, academia, and industry.
Over the next four years, member organisations will work together to understand cardiovascular diseases and optimise prevention and treatment.
By creating one database consisting of data from more than one million patients and using artificial intelligence, partners will look for new strategies to shift from a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ to personalised care.
Orbital Global will harness its digital health research capabilities and its spin-out AI technology, VirtTuri to help automate future treatments and improve prognoses.
Peter Brady, the chief executive of Orbital Global, said: ‘Cardiovascular diseases affect 620 million people across the world and account for around one in three deaths globally.
“Despite individual differences in risk factors and symptoms, there is currently a standard treatment plan for all patients.
“Our vision is to deploy VirtTuri within this project, to better understand patients’ individual needs and configure tailored treatments in real time for them, ultimately saving lives.”
Cardiovascular (CVD) disease has enormous socio-economic impact world wide.
It is still the most common cause of death, despite significant advantages in therapy. Due to population ageing and unhealthy lifestyle, the number of Europeans suffering from CVD currently exceeds 85 million and is on the rise.
iCARE4CVD aims to improve four aspects of current care, including:
►Early diagnosis and classification into clinically meaningful subgroups.
►Prediction of individual treatment response.
VirtTuri is a patented, regulatory compliant AI clinical informatics platform that deploys interactive hyperrealistic avatars to significantly enhance patient understanding of critical healthcare information.
Proven to elevate user engagement and recall of complex healthcare information, the VirtTuri AI platform will embed within the clinical interface, providing user friendly real-time clinical information and interaction with patients.
Prof Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, coordinator of iCARE4CVD and cardiologist at Maastricht University and Maastricht University Medical Center, said: “As doctors we are mostly bound to a one-size-fits-all approach while treating our patients with CVD.
“Our mission however, within iCARE4CVD, is to personalise diagnosis and management of CVD to improve both outcome and patient satisfaction.
“We will achieve this by collecting data of more than one million subjects in a federated database, analysing them using artificial intelligence (AI) and prospectively validating personalized treatments during the second half of iCARE4CVD’.
“The voices of people at risk for and those living with CVDs will be at the heart of iCARE4CVD during the entire project, by using patients’ insights, opinions and wishes.”
iCARE4CVD will also investigate health outcomes in people with type 1 diabetes at risk of developing CVD.
The project has been has been granted €22 million in funding from the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) - a joint undertaking of the European Commission and the European life science industry.
The project will run until March 31, 2028.
Orbital Global is a digital services and technology TechEast 100 and Future 50 company.
