Gent – The European project "Vital - Virtual Twins as Tools for Personalised Clinical Care" is kicking off, with the University of Pisa as the only Italian university among its partners. Coordinated by Ghent University, Vital aims to develop a multi-organ platform over the next five years that, using Artificial Intelligence, will create a "virtual human twin" for patients suffering from multifactorial cardiovascular disorders with high-comorbidity systemic impact. This "twin," through specific predictive models, will allow doctors to personalize pharmacological and interventional therapies more effectively, sparing patients from unnecessary treatments that would offer no benefit. The University of Pisa team, led by Professor Martina Smorti, will explore the potential psychological, social, and relational impacts associated with the use of this type of technology in medicine.

"The team, thanks to expertise in psychological and sociological fields," explains Professor Smorti from the Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular, and Critical Pathology, "will investigate the factors that facilitate or hinder the acceptance of the virtual human twin by doctors, patients, and caregivers." "The Pisa group," continues Professor Smorti, "will be dedicated to studying factors that could foster the acceptance of the virtual human twin by patients, such as trust in the healthcare system, confidence in the doctors treating the condition, and in artificial intelligence, as well as the perceived support of family members. At the same time, the team will monitor the psychological stress of patients involved in clinical trials."