Regional Center for Digital Medicine at NIKard.

The NIKard Regional Center for Digital Medicine will serve for modern diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Its task will be to analyze real-time data, support clinical and scientific research and hospital care in the area of digital solutions.

- Cardiovascular diseases are still one of the leading causes of death among Poles. The establishment of the Center will contribute to improving the prognosis of inpatients, as well as those receiving outpatient care at our hospital. It will also create an opportunity to conduct scientific research effectively, as well as improve the operation and increase the application potential of clinical research conducted by the NIKard Clinical Research Support Center, which has been in operation for more than a year," said Professor Lukasz Szumowski, director of the National Institute of Cardiology.

Patient safety at the highest level

The essence of building the NIKard Regional Center for Digital Medicine (RCMC NIKard) is to create an interdisciplinary team of experts - cardiologists, data engineers and computer scientists. The task of this team will be to design solutions using modern technology that will help improve the health experience of patients.

The project will create an advanced analytics platform with a range of tools to, among other things, conduct innovative data work and create models based on artificial intelligence, collect and structure data from various sources, or communicate with other regional digital medicine centers.

For example, the system will analyze data from monitoring patients' vital signs, the results of their laboratory and imaging tests or ECG readings. The analysis will be carried out by specially created algorithms, making it possible to detect alarm conditions in real time. Early diagnosis and precise monitoring of exacerbations and complications will help improve patients' prognosis and quality of life.

Another example with practical applications is the implementation of an application that monitors the use and dosage of drugs in patients struggling with cardiovascular disease. Through the use of advanced data analysis methods and artificial intelligence (AI), the system will search for optimal pharmacotherapy strategies. This will reduce the risks associated with the use of pharmacotherapy, thus reducing drug-induced side effects.

It is also planned to create modern IT tools for cardiologists, which, based on artificial intelligence, will help diagnose patients quickly and efficiently and simplify medical record keeping. These solutions will provide patients with in-depth information about their health status, and the process of communication with patients will be simplified and made even more user-friendly (including the presentation of information contained in medical records, treatments or medical recommendations).

New dimension of scientific and research activities

More than 50 research tasks are currently underway at NIKard, funded by external grants or its own resources. In turn, more than 70 commercial and 18 non-commercial clinical trials are being conducted within the Clinical Research Support Center (NIKard CWBK). The establishment of the Regional Center for Digital Medicine (RCMC NIKard) will increase the scientific potential of the Institute and allow research using advanced methods of data analysis and artificial intelligence.

- We want to increase our capacity to conduct scientific and clinical research at every possible stage. This will be made possible by the establishment of a Regional Center for Digital Medicine, which will also support the study planning process and assist in recruiting participants by pre-selecting patients who meet the inclusion criteria from among the patients under the care of our hospital," said Dr. Cezary Kepka, Prof. Inst. - Deputy Director for Science at the National Institute of Cardiology. As he stressed, the Center's support will also be used at the stage of collecting, processing and analyzing data collected in scientific and clinical studies. This is to ensure the high quality of the data and allow analysis to be carried out in accordance with the best global standards. The ability to analyze the full spectrum of data - which has been collected for more than a dozen years in NIKard's medical systems and includes nearly 14.5 million examinations performed on nearly 500,000 patients, including hundreds of thousands of advanced imaging studies - offers tremendous research opportunities. Increased reliability of results and analysis of large data sets will positively influence early implementation of results into the Institute's clinical practice.

According to the approved schedule, the RCMC NIKard is to be established within 5 years. Among other things, its task will be to support modern diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases, so the National Institute of Cardiology plans to cooperate with other research centers to exchange good practices and experience in this area.

Poland joins league of world leaders in digital medicine

The National Institute of Cardiology is one of 18 research units in the country that will receive support for the establishment of Regional Digital Medicine Centers. The competition for their establishment was decided by the Medical Research Agency. With the allocated funds for the digitization of clinical trials, these units will create an infrastructure that allows access to a large amount of reliable data, while maintaining control over the sources that generate it. This marks a turning point in the discussion of data security and the appropriate use of information in health care.

- I believe that the creation of the Regional Center for Digital Medicine at NIKard will contribute to the development of the health care system, with a special focus on the area of cardiology. The funds provided by the Medical Research Agency support diagnostic activities, but, crucially, it is also an opportunity to more precisely personalize therapy and identify patients in need of urgent intervention. I am convinced that the establishment of the Regional Centers for Digital Medicine in Poland is undoubtedly a watershed moment in healthcare, being a catalyst for the development of clinical research in our country," stressed Medical Research Agency President Radoslaw Sierpinski, MD.

Source: NIKard