Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany
Millions of Europeans affected by breast cancer and depression face unrecognised physical, psychological, social and financial burdens, while clinicians struggle with fragmented data and health systems lack equity-sensitive intelligence. The ResPECT project will change paradigms in burden management by moving beyond static patient-reported outcomes measure (PROM)-based monitoring; we will deliver the first end-user–driven Generative AI Virtual Assistant to systematically capture patient narratives, transform them into actionable intelligence, and integrate them into clinical care and policy planning.
ResPECT pursues six objectives: (1) enable patients to express lived experiences in their own words; (2) translate narratives into guideline-linked recommendations; (3) demonstrate clinical effectiveness in a randomised trial; (4) validate AI-derived burden scores against gold-standard PROMs; (5) provide real-time, equity-focused insights for health systems; (6) ensure inclusivity, safety and trust through participatory co-design and compliance with GDPR and the EU AI Act.
The consortium of leading clinical centres, AI innovators, patient organisations, and policy experts will co-create and deploy a Medical Assistant embedded in electronic health records and a Policy Assistant aligned with WHO frameworks. Clinical validation through a randomised trial across eight countries, combined with health technology and equity impact assessments, will establish robust evidence for safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Progressing from TRL 4 to TRL 7, ResPECT directly responds to the Horizon Europe call by advancing trustworthy, user-centric Generative AI solutions that improve quality of life, reduce health care professional (HCP) workload and strengthen health system responsiveness. It aligns with the EU Cancer Mission and the EU Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health, providing scalable and transferable innovations that place patients and HCP at the centre of care.
This project is currently in grant preparation with the European Commission.
This project contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3.
