Datrix Event Better

Italian Start for “BETTER”: The European Project Realizes an Innovative Vision of Medicine Thanks to Artificial Intelligence

Led by the Datrix Group, the international health project “BETTER” is taking shape, focusing on artificial intelligence: treatment and early diagnosis of rare diseases are becoming a tangible reality.

In Stresa, by the Lake Maggiore, the project kick-off between Datrix, European medical experts, and leading universities, marked the beginning of the development of a groundbreaking platform. This platform aims to revolutionize the analysis and exchange of health data at the European level through artificial intelligence and data science.

Since December 2023, the Italian group Datrix has been leading the international medical-scientific consortium named “BETTER”. With a budget of 10 million euros planned for the next three and a half years, the project aims to provide European hospital doctors with a consultation and decision-support interface based on genomic analysis and AI technologies, strictly adhering to data protection regulations for patient data.

Milan, April 10, 2024 – Datrix, a leading international group focusing on artificial intelligence, positions Europe at the forefront of medical innovation. Listed on Euronext Growth Milan, Datrix drives data-driven growth of large organizations through its ecosystem of highly specialized deep-tech companies. The medical-scientific and academic consortium “BETTER” they lead exemplifies this spirit of innovation.

The operational start of the “BETTER” project (Better Real-World Health-Data Distributed Analytics Research Platform), funded by the Horizon Europe Program, was officially formalized in Stresa, by the picturesque Lake Maggiore. “BETTER” pursues the ambitious goal of developing an intuitive platform that enables European physicians to access patient data. These data can be filtered and compared by pathologies or genetic characteristics to train predictive models. Over the next three and a half years, the project will continue its R&D activities, focusing on the collection and analysis of data on rare pediatric diseases, autism spectrum disorders in children and adolescents, and congenital visual impairments, especially retinal diseases.

The “BETTER” project integrates the world’s strictest GDPR and data protection regulations in handling health information. A key to this is the innovative use of federated learning and distributed artificial intelligence. Federated learning revolutionizes the training of AI models by using data from various hospitals to improve therapies without the need to exchange or share data. Patient data remain securely within the respective hospitals. There, local models are trained, ensuring data protection. Aggregating these local models creates a global model, which far surpasses local models in interpretative performance.

Kick-Off Event in Piedmont

During the two-day kick-off event in Piedmont, on April 10 and 11, led by Datrix as the project coordinator and technology enabler, health experts from leading European and international clinical institutes and universities came together. Participants included renowned institutions such as:

• Buzzi Children’s Hospital in Milan
• Sant Joan de Déu Hospital (ES)
• University Hospital of Cologne (DE)
• Mutua de Terrassa (ES)
• University Hospital of Valencia LaFe (ES)
• Institute of Molecular Genetics in Belgrade (RS)
• Hadassah Hospital of Jerusalem (IL)
• Politecnico di Milano
• Universitat Politècnica de València (ES)
• University of Maastricht (NL)
• Aston University (UK)
• Universitetet i Tromsø (NO)
• RheaSoft ApSm (DK)
• Noosware Bv (NL)

During the closed-door meetings, the vision and ambitious goals of the EU-funded “BETTER” project were the focus. Experts presented and discussed in detail the technical foundations, the challenges to be tackled, and the promising future perspectives for the implementation of advanced, data-driven medical solutions. A central point of discussion was the absolute necessity to safeguard the privacy of health data, combined with the use of innovative technologies such as federated learning and data standardization. The ultimate goal: to improve public health through the use of advanced technological solutions.

The “BETTER” project exemplifies how technology can be purposefully used to seamlessly fit into the provisions of the newly introduced AI Act (AI ACT), by avoiding data transmission. Instead, algorithms are trained directly at the site of data generation, ensuring data security and privacy, while paving the way for innovative medical research and treatment.

Leadership Perspectives

At Datrix, we passionately embrace the challenges of transforming the AI potentials into tangible applications that can have a positive and lasting impact on society as a whole. Our coordinating role in the BETTER project not only underscores our leadership position in managing innovation projects but is also affirmed by the outstanding success: Among 49 proposals submitted by European consortia, BETTER ranked first, with only four projects ultimately funded by the European Commission. This success reinforces our commitment to advancing an approach that could sustainably change the landscape of data-driven medicine and improve people’s healthcare.

Precision medicine considers individual genetic, metabolic, and environmental patient profiles to offer tailored, effective treatment paths and minimize side effects. Through the BETTER project, which analyzes data from various hospitals using AI, we aim to make the national health service more efficient and provide patients with access to innovative therapies. This vision guides our research and development work in the coming years.

By its leading role in technological innovation and its ability to secure significant funding from the European Commission, Datrix once again stands out as a pioneer in promoting international medical research through the use of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

About Datrix

Datrix is an international group, listed on Euronext Growth Milan, that develops Artificial Intelligence solutions and applications to accelerate data-driven business growth through highly specialised technology companies in vertical markets. The Group operates with AI-based solutions in 2 business areas: AI for Data Monetisation (to maximise growth opportunities in the Martech, AdTech and FinTech sectors by transforming data into tangible value) and AI for Industrial/Business Processes (to optimise the efficiency of industrial and business processes, including energy plants, transport infrastructures, production processes and logistics).

Since 2019, Datrix has accelerated its growth path through acquisitions in Italy and abroad. Today the Datrix Group includes the following brands: Aramix, FinScience, ByTek and Adapex.

Datrix is also a technology partner of international consortia for important research and development projects (funded by the European Union and Italy) based on artificial intelligence algorithms in the financial, biomedical and cybersecurity sectors.

Datrix operates in Italy (Milan, Rome, Cagliari, Viterbo), the United States and UAE.

For further details please visit datrixgroup.com.

For More Information

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