EIT Health finances the ASSIST project of the startup Idoven with 1.5 million euros

EIT Health Invests 1.5 Million Euros in Idoven's ASSIST Project to Advance Healthcare Innovation

The ASSIST innovation project consortium, led by the Spanish startup Idoven, has obtained from EIT Health, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, 1.5 million euros in funding over two years to develop the first artificial intelligence-based solution for early diagnosis and accurate triage of acute myocardial infarction.

Every year, 4 million European citizens die from cardiovascular disease (CVD), and 20% of these deaths are caused by ischemic heart disease. Among the most common forms of ischemic heart disease is acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack or heart attack. 

“ASSIST addresses the number one cause of death for citizens of the European Union: cardiovascular diseases”, commented Izabel Alfany , interim general director of EIT Health Spain . "The project aligns with one of the four strategic areas of EIT Health. This is to harness the full potential of health data for innovation, by using existing and new structures to generate and validate the artificial intelligence tool."

"The ASSIST project is a perfect example of how EIT Health supports startups and promotes innovation in health through its calls and international projects so that innovative and disruptive solutions reach the market and improve healthcare and the health of patients”, added Alfany. 

The implementation of ASSIST acquires a capital importance in the current health context, marked by the progressive aging of the population and a growing prevalence of risk factors for acute myocardial infarction. The goal of the consortium is to improve accuracy and reduce the time to diagnosis of patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction.of myocardium supported by the use of a technological platform called Willem, which uses artificial intelligence models. Through these advances, the ASSIST project aims to achieve a reduction in mortality rates in patients with acute myocardial infarction, which has been shown to decrease proportionally with the reduction in time from diagnosis to intervention, in the most urgent cases ( ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarctions).

Dr. Manuel Marina Breysse , cardiologist and CEO of Idoven , explained that "Willem, our artificial intelligence in the cloud will facilitate the optimization of the detection and prognosis of patients from a single platform integrated into the usual clinical practice of the heart attack code to achieve a reduction of up to 67% in the time spent in having a diagnosis, counting from the first medical contact of the patient with the medical emergency service”.

By speeding up the diagnostic process and improving communication between clinical agents, ASSIST will contribute to a more efficient use of healthcare resources and improve the quality of treatment that patients receive. "We estimate that just three years after the end of the project we will be able to reach more than 1.2 million patients with suspected acute ischemic heart disease. The results will be more than 1,400 lives saved and will lead to savings of more than 74 million euros in costs, for the participating health regions", concluded Dr. Marina .

ASSIST is the first innovation project selected by EIT Health in its new call for Flagships grants . Its goal is to drive the development and adoption of digital health solutions, maximize the potential of health data, embrace new value-based models of healthcare, and strengthen the European healthcare industry.

Published on : 04th August, 2023