The project evaluates the feasibility of implementing LOLA, an AI-based virtual medical assistant with conversational technology that provides personalized tracking to patients suffering from heart failure.
Heart failure is a chronic disease that affects 2.34% of the adult Spanish population1 and involves different medical specialties (cardiologists, internists, family physicians) due to the different patient profiles.
AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the Cardiology Department of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, and Tucuvi have presented AZerca, a program that enables personalized follow-up of patients with congestive heart failure (HF) using artificial intelligence and conversational technology. It is expected that this follow-up strategy will allow healthcare professionals to achieve better control of patients, reducing the need for hospital care, which will in turn result in an optimization of resources and an improvement in patients’ quality of life.
Patients are contacted on the telephone by the virtual medical voice assistant, called LOLA, to collect information about their health status on a schedule established by the clinical team. The collected data is automatically analyzed and structured on the Tucuvi Health Manager platform and then reviewed by the specialized nursing team, prioritizing preconfigured alerts that allow focusing attention on those patients with a higher risk of decompensation or changes in their usual clinical condition. This complements the work of healthcare professionals, as it allows them to follow up patients in a more frequent, close, and personalized way, which translates into greater adherence to treatment and improved self-care, being able to anticipate possible decompensations that could lead to a worsening of the disease.
This program will involve the participation of around 90 patients from the Heart Failure Unit of the Cardiology Department of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona who have a diagnosis of heart failure based on the criteria of the European Guidelines on Heart Failure of 20212. The follow-up program will last between 6 and 12 months and aims at evaluating the feasibility of implementing the tool in the Cardiology Department of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and to analyze the improvements that it could bring to the unit.
According to Dr. Aleix Olivella, assistant physician of the Cardiology Service of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital and researcher of the Cardiovascular Diseases group of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), “new technologies based on artificial intelligence can help us face the great healthcare challenge posed by chronic diseases such as heart failure, whose prevalence is constantly increasing and is the leading cause of hospitalization in patients over 65 years of age, with a very marked impact on quality of life. In this very common disease, all patients, by definition, have a high risk of decompensation, making their follow-up very complex and with a high demand for care”. With regard to LOLA, he adds, “We hope that it will allow us to maintain closer contact with all patients, being able to focus our attention on those who need it the most at any given moment without neglecting other more stable patients, thus maximizing the efficiency of resource use and achieving better support for patients with heart failure“. Dr. Olivella is also coordinator of the Servei de Cardiologia de l’Hospital Sant Rafael.
Developed by the Spanish company Tucuvi, LOLA is an AI voice-based virtual medical assistant that enables continuous and personal follow-up of each patient through autonomous phone calls. With more than 60,000 patients served, LOLA helps hospitals ensure that patients receive continuous, high-quality care while maintaining an essential human touch. In some cases, they have contributed to reducing hospital stays by 26% and the 30-day readmission rate by more than 50%. In the words of María González Manso, CEO and co-founder of Tucuvi: “LOLA’s goal is to increase the capabilities of healthcare professionals to be able to offer the best care to their patients and anticipate complications. In the case of heart failure, maintaining continuity of care and anticipating decompensation is crucial for the patient’s quality of life. We are very pleased to work with leading HF professionals and industry to improve the efficiency and support of HF patients by implementing LOLA’s AI.“
“We help to optimize the tools of the healthcare system, providing innovative solutions that support healthcare professionals, thus contributing to improving patients’ day-to-day lives,” notes Dr. César Velasco, Director of Innovation and Digital Strategy at AstraZeneca Spain. “To this end, AstraZeneca collaborates with entities in the innovation ecosystem that are committed to driving the development of digital health solutions. These solutions allow us to improve the quality of life of millions of people suffering from chronic diseases such as heart failure through collaboration with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, healthcare centers, the healthcare system, patients, and healthcare professionals.“
About Tucuvi
Tucuvi is a HealthTech company specialized in the development of Conversational Artificial Intelligence solutions with a human touch that seeks to make healthcare more accessible and more efficient. With the aim of providing a continuous, personal and tailored follow-up to each patient from their home, we have developed “Tucuvi Healthcare Manager”, the first automatic patient follow-up platform through phone calls. Thanks to its virtual clinical assistant “LOLA”, Tucuvi can alleviate the workload of healthcare professionals and increase the efficiency of hospitals and medical centers through a personalized, close and accessible solution.
Present in large healthcare systems such as Spain, UK and Portugal, and having carried out more than 1M conversations, LOLA frees up to 70% of nursing teams’ time and reduces the average length of hospital stays by 26%. Certified with the CE Mark by the Spanish Medicines Agency as a medical device, with ISO27001 certification and the National Security Scheme, Tucuvi complies with the most robust data protection standards.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases and Biopharma, including Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism, and Respiratory and Immunology. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in more than 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide.
AstraZeneca is a Top Employer in Spain and Europe and has been awarded the EFR certificate as a Family Responsible Company.
Visit astrazeneca.es and follow the company on Twitter @AstraZenecaES and Instagram: @AstraZenecaEs
Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR)
VHIR is a public sector institution that promotes and develops biosanitary research, innovation and teaching at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. Since 1994 we work to identify and apply new solutions to the health problems of society, achieving leadership and excellence in clinical and translational biomedical research at national and international level.
We do research to solve people’s health problems. Our work is not only basic or translational; we are leaders in clinical research. We have hospital beds less than 50 meters from the laboratories and our patients benefit from the research we carry out. We believe in this, that’s what we strive for. This is also understood by industry leaders, who bet on our hospital when it comes to conducting their first clinical trials, thus making us a world reference. https://vhir.vallhebron.com/
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