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31/05/2022 - Institutional news

Hospital del Mar and Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute will participate in the international TOLIFE project on COPD management.

The hospital is the only healthcare centre in Spain to form part of the group behind the project, which aims to create a mobile app platform to personalise patient monitoring for sufferers of this disease. The initiative will receive funding from the EU's HORIZON programme.

Hospital del Mar's Pneumology Department is part of the TOLIFE project (Artificial Intelligence and Smart sensing TOward better management and improved quality of LIFE in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This is an international initiative to develop a tool that, using artificial intelligence, will improve and personalise the treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 

Members of the project. From left to right, Diego Rodriguez, Sergi Pascual, Esther Barreiro, Carme Casadevall and Joaquim Gea.

The TOLIFE project, coordinated by the University of Pisa, involves research centres and companies from Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain. In Spain, the Hospital del Mar is the only healthcare centre taking part. Its role, and that of the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, will be to recruit and study patients, as well as to advise on the actual interpretation of the clinical and pathophysiological variables. TOLIFE will receive funding from the European Union through its HORIZON programme for research and innovation (Horizon Europe Framework Programme).

A five-year project

Five experts from the Hospital del Mar's Pneumology Service, who are also researchers at the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, are involved in the project. They are doctors Joaquim Gea (local coordinator), Diego Rodríguez, Sergi Pascual, Esther Barreiro and Carme Casadevall. Over the next five years, the TOLIFE consortium will be developing an artificial intelligence algorithm to improve COPD patient monitoring, based on epidemiological data, biometric sensor data and patient responses to questionnaires, all collected through a mobile phone app.

This project involves specialists from different fields, beyond the health sector. It is a multidisciplinary team that brings together epidemiologists, engineers and experts in artificial intelligence. The ultimate goal is to be able to predict COPD flare-ups and to achieve the personalised clinical management of patients.

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