Revolutionizing Cardiology Data: DT4H Launches a Secure, AI-Driven Toolbox for Patient Care

(IN BRIEF) The DataTools4Heart (DT4H) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework, has successfully concluded its initial development phase and is set to achieve major milestones in 2025. Focused on enhancing the lifestyle of cardiovascular disease patients, DT4H is developing a secure, privacy-preserving toolkit that enables the reuse of clinical cardiology data through a federated approach—keeping sensitive data within hospital systems while extracting valuable insights. The initiative aims to bridge the gap between clinical practice and computational research by offering a comprehensive, user-friendly toolbox that requires no programming skills, powered by advanced technologies such as multilingual natural language processing and federated machine learning. With planned priorities including the deployment of stable software, integration into a unified interface, and active clinician engagement, the project is poised to demonstrate its potential through early clinical analyses in eight European hospitals. These demonstrations, featuring real-world data and AI-powered insights, will be showcased at upcoming conferences like the ESC Congress in Madrid, underlining DT4H’s commitment to revolutionizing healthcare data analytics.

(PRESS RELEASE) SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, 25-Mar-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — DataTools4Heart (DT4H), an innovative initiative funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework, is set to transform the daily lives of cardiovascular disease patients by developing a secure, privacy-focused toolkit for reusing cardiology data. The project, which has now successfully wrapped up its initial development phase, is gearing up for a series of major milestones in 2025. Its mission is to drive healthcare innovation by merging clinical insight with advanced computational techniques, ultimately overcoming longstanding challenges in data privacy and standardization across European hospitals.

Announced from Sophia Antipolis on March 25, 2025, the DT4H project addresses a critical gap in cardiology: the vast amounts of data collected in hospitals have long been underutilized due to privacy concerns and the complex variations in data formats and languages. DT4H pioneers a federated approach where data is extracted, translated, and reused without leaving the secure environment of the hospital. This ensures that sensitive patient information remains protected while enabling groundbreaking research and improved clinical decision-making.

The project’s visionary goal is to create a comprehensive, user-friendly toolbox that empowers clinicians and researchers to easily access structured clinical data and harness AI-powered analytics—all without needing any programming skills. Cristian Izquierdo, the scientific lead from the University of Barcelona, explains that the initial version of the toolbox, scheduled for launch at the end of 2025, marks the start of an iterative refinement process that will continually adapt the tool to the real-world needs of healthcare professionals.

Laura G. Antiga, a research engineer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, adds that DT4H is designed as an all-encompassing solution for data ingestion, harmonization, multilingual natural language processing, federated machine learning, and data synthesis. This advanced suite of functionalities promises to streamline clinical workflows, offering explainable insights that can be directly integrated into everyday medical practice.

Looking ahead, the DT4H consortium has outlined three key priorities for 2025:

Deployment of Stable Software Versions: The project will roll out its first stable software releases, ensuring smooth management of the federated learning network and setting the stage for secure, privacy-preserving collaboration among clinical and research institutions.

Integration into a Unified Interface: Dedicated working groups are already working to consolidate diverse applications into a single, cohesive platform, thereby simplifying user experience and enabling seamless access to a wide range of analytical tools.

Clinician Engagement for Optimization: Recognizing the central role of end users, DT4H has established a clinical working group to gather continuous feedback. This collaborative approach will refine the toolbox, ensuring that it meets the practical needs of physicians and researchers. In fact, the first clinical analysis using the platform is expected to kick off by mid-2025 across eight hospitals operating in seven different languages—including Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, English, Czech, Italian, and Romanian—with multilingual AI-driven virtual assistants to guide users.

These hospitals, which include institutions from the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, will put the system through its paces by addressing real-world clinical queries from outpatient and emergency departments. The outcomes of these initial analyses, along with live software demonstrations, will be presented at several public forums and conferences later in the year, including a dedicated session at the ESC Congress in Madrid from August 29 to September 1, 2025.

Cristian Izquierdo emphasizes, “Federated learning is transforming healthcare by enabling secure collaboration across institutions, which not only improves AI model accuracy through diverse data but also upholds the highest standards of privacy and ethics.” With DT4H, the vision of an integrated, secure, and accessible data analysis platform is rapidly becoming a reality, promising to revolutionize cardiology research and patient care.

Notes to editors

The DataTools4Heart project website

Funding: This project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework.

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About the European Society of Cardiology

The ESC brings together healthcare professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people to live longer, healthier lives.

SOURCE: European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

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