First steps in the new project TRANSFIRESAÚDE, with the participation of CiTIUS

The first meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the TRANSFIRESAÚDE project took place on November 7th. The event could be followed both in person (at the agency's own premises) and telematically. This project aims to integrate the Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystem to address the situation of active and healthy ageing. The plan will have an estimated duration of 3 years and will have a budget of more than 1.8 million euros.

This meeting is part of the activities of the POCTEP program, the Operational Program for Cross-Border Cooperation Spain-Portugal, which takes advantage of international cooperation to develop a system of scientific and technological innovation.

The main objective of the POCTEP program will be to promote and strengthen innovation in the field of artificial intelligence to analyze and provide an active and healthy ageing, especially as far as primary care is concerned for the Euroregion of Galicia and Northern Portugal.

The TRANSFIRESAÚDE project is composed of entities representing the Euroregion of Galicia and Northern Portugal. The institutions representing Galicia were the Axencia Galega para a Xestión do Coñecemento en Saúde (ACIS), as project coordinator; the Centro de Investigación en Tecnoloxías de Innovación (CiTIUS), with a team led by Manuel Lama Penín; the Universidade de Vigo; and the Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Eurocidade Chaves-Verín. On the Portuguese side, the representing institutions were the Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto (i3S), the Centro Clínico Académico-Braga, Associação (2CA-Braga), the Associação Centro de Medicina P5 (ACMP5) and the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência (INESC TEC).

Manuel Lama Penín, CiTIUS representative in this initiative, points out the role of the institution: "CiTIUS will coordinate the activity focused on the development of a reference framework for the use of AI in the health services of the Euroregion. A playbook will be created for the ethical development of AI in healthcare in the context of the Euroregion, training and awareness-raising actions will be proposed regarding the contents of the playbook among healthcare professionals, patients and ICT companies, and four pilots will be developed in real environments based on technological solutions led by researchers from the center". He adds that participation in the project will allow the center to assess the impact of its AI-based proposals within the Euroregion.

The attendees used this first meeting as a point of approach to the project: they analyzed its regulatory, contractual and budgetary conditions, as well as the activities and deadlines foreseen for each partner. With this, they marked the first steps of the initiative and set the dates for the next meetings.