1,100 islanders will test an app that combines artificial intelligence and medicine on demand

Physical activity is one of the variables that the Cuida-t application designed to promote a healthy lifestyle will measure. / JUAN CARLOS ALONSO

The pilot test of the Cuída-t application begins its first phase on May 25. The Canary Islands have invested 3.8 million in this project

control of
consumption of alcohol or anxiolytics, the level of
physical activitythe
emotional state or the degree of stress are some of the
parameters that will be measured through the application take care-t, that combines artificial intelligence and personalized medicine. Until now, some
1,100 people from the archipelago have given their consent to test the application promoted by the Government of the Canary Islands and the Generalitat Valenciana, endowed with a budget of
€5.8 million3.8 million provided by the Canary Executive and financed 85% with FEDER funds and the rest paid for by the Valencian Government.

The first phase of the project, the
audience acquisition to test the application, it has been underway for a month, according to the project coordinator, Joaquín Grande, who points out that the idea for this app came up in 2016. “That it has taken so long has been both an inconvenience and an advantage, because in this time artificial intelligence has improved a lot, ”says Grande.

Once the consent of the participants has been obtained for their data to be analyzed, an app will be launched that will try to collect information on very personal issues;
diet, physical activity, emotional state and coping with stress, unwanted loneliness and addictions -including tobacco, alcohol, drugs or cannabinoids-, large abounds. «You can participate in one or several sections. This is an advantage over other health-related apps," says the head of service at the Support Unit of the Canary Islands Health Service.

In a second phase of the project, the app will focus more on the
control and monitoring of certain pathologies, those with the highest prevalence, and also rare diseases, explains Grande about this tool, of which there is only one precedent in the United Kingdom in the app
Symptom Checker from the digital health service provider Babylon. “It is the closest thing to what we propose,” she points out.

The first application will come into operation on May 25 with three different versions designed by as many companies. “They are going to compete and the one that wins will be in charge of undertaking the second phase with clinical data,” says the promoter of the app. Of these three versions, the one that best connects with the user will be the model to undertake the second phase of the project. “One of the requirements of the application is that it has to be
friendly, almost playful. We want it to be usable by people with minimal computer knowledge,” she says.

Once user adherence is achieved, the challenge will be more scientific in nature. "The
detailed and personalized information what you do at home cannot be picked up by a doctor in six minutes every two months. This application will allow a different form of medicine, processing person-to-person data. The combination of personalized medicine and artificial intelligence is going to generate a
knowledge about patient profiles much higher than the simple sum of diseases», comments the strategic consultant for innovation, who highlights the enormous amount of information that can be obtained on the incidence of diseases according to different variables: habits, sex, age or multiple pathologies. This advance will mean, according to Grande, a leap in the approach to medicine on its way to personalization.