„PerHeart: Personalized ICT solution to reduce re-hospitalization rates in heart failure elderly patients

Heart failure (HF) is the most common single diagnosis for hospital admissions and is one of the leading causes of death. Most patients are over 65 years of age, and demographic trends and improved survival from cardiovascular disease will increase the importance of heart failure as a burden on the healthcare system in the future. In addition, there is a very high rate of readmissions (rehospitalisation) of these patients. Reducing readmissions for inpatient treatment is therefore an important task for relieving the burden on the healthcare system.

This is where the European PerHeart project comes in: The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is intended to demonstrably improve the health care of HF patients and significantly reduce the rehospitalisation rate of those affected. The patient-centered approach considers aspects of personalized medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory). The transnational and interdisciplinary project consortium (Romania, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Hungary, and Germany) is collaborating on pilot studies to develop a user-centered ICT platform that will be continuously adapted to the two user groups (patients and care providers) with the support of artificial intelligence (AI). Considering gender-specific and socioeconomic factors, the interpretation and prediction of heart failure is to be facilitated and, at the same time, targeted intervention is to be supported. In addition to the application of social science research methods for data collection, the iso-Institute is responsible for the development of a catalog of criteria for the presentation of ethical, social, and legal implications (ELSI) during the implementation of the project. The insights gained in the project work for the further development of the European Union's requirements for research and technology development are to be made usable within the framework of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).