Personalised risk assessment of cardiovascular diseases is intended to be part of the dynamically learning healthcare system of the future. This is the focus of the use case ACRIBiS (Advancing Cardiovascular Risk Identification with Structured Clinical Documentation and Biosignal Derived Phenotypes Synthesis), which is funded by the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). At 15 participating university hospitals clinical data from 4,500 patients will be collected, in order to implement automated risk assessment tools. Furthermore, to improve the quality of predictions, high-resolution biosignal data (e.g. ECG-data) will be integrated.

At the participating sites, a standardised and structured routine documentation will be established. Additionally, patients will be followed up on their disease progression after clinical treatment in order to further improve the risk prediction models.

Another important source of data will be ECG-data, which is often recorded in routine clinical practice. The combination of clinical cardiovascular data and biosignal data can provide more accurate risk assessment predictions compared to current tools. Especially for long-term monitoring in daily life, biosignal data from smartwatches or other wearables will also be integrated. Those data sources are becoming increasingly relevant for medical practice.

A further primary goal of the project is to use interactive visualisations to help patients build awareness of their risks. Such visualisations are intended to motivate patients to adhere to therapies or motivate lifestyle changes. Both can contribute to reducing the individual risk of progression of existing cardiovascular disease.

ACRIBiS makes use of the infrastructure set up by the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and the Network University Medicine (NUM). This infrastructure includes the Medical Data Integration Centres (MeDICs) that have been established at the various locations, the Data Sharing Framework for exchanging clinical data in interoperable formats, and the Broad Consent for using clinical data in scientific research across different sites.

ACRIBiS is funded by the BMBF with around 9 million euros over the project period of four years. The University Hospital Bonn (UKB) is responsible for overall coordination; Hannover, Würzburg, Heidelberg, Göttingen and Munich are co-coordinators. Additional implementation partners are Berlin, Dresden, Essen, Freiburg, Mainz, Münster, Ulm, and Cottbus.