The Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon will lead the technological development of ResPECT, a European project that aims to create a virtual assistant based on generative artificial intelligence to support patients and health professionals. The project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme with €15.8 million and will run for four years.
The initiative brings together 22 partners and is coordinated by Heidelberg University in Germany. The assistant will be multilingual and will have two strands: a medical one, which cross-references the experiences reported by patients with clinical information and treatment guidelines, and another aimed at policymakers, which pools data to identify unmet needs and gaps in care.
The work will focus on early-stage breast cancer and moderate to severe depression. The medical assistant will be tested in a multicentre, randomised controlled clinical trial, with evaluation in eight European countries.
According to coordinator André Pfob, of Heidelberg University and its university hospital, the aim is to convert patients’ lived experience into concrete information that can improve care and make European health systems smarter.
