A consortium of academic, healthcare and technology organizations in Europe will pilot big data programs across the care continuum to improve patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs, project coordinator Amsterdam-based Royal Philips announced March 29.
The three-year project, dubbed BigMedilytics, is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. BigMedilytics marks the largest EU-funded big data initiative targeted toward the healthcare sector, with funding shared across 35 partners in 12 countries, according to Philips officials.
BigMedilytics' mission is to use artificial intelligence to combine complex streams of patient information generated from hospitals, payers and wearables, among other data sources, to uncover new insights into patient outcomes and cost-saving measures.
Pilots under the BigMedilytics umbrella will fall into three categories: population health and chronic disease management, oncology, and the industrialization of healthcare.
"By applying AI to that data and combining that with clinical knowledge we are able to develop meaningful insights and workflow improvements that can improve patient care whilst reducing the burden of cost to health systems," said Henk van Houten, PhD, chief technology officer and head of research at Philips.