The Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest announced on Monday the launch of the 'Bioinnovative Center for Integrated Medical Data and Research in Bucharest' (BioMedLake) project, an initiative aimed at developing biomedical research infrastructure, integrating medical data and accelerating national collaboration in medical research.

'We are today launching a national initiative with the potential to transform the way we understand, organise and use medical data for the benefit of research, innovation and, ultimately, patients. BioMedLake is not merely a digital infrastructure project. It marks the beginning of a new stage in cooperation between universities, hospitals, research institutes, public authorities and technology partners in an area that is essential for the future of medicine: the responsible use of medical data, innovative technologies and artificial intelligence,' Rector of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest Viorel Jinga is quoted in a press release as saying.

The project is fully financed through the European Regional Development Fund under the Health Programme. Its total value amounts to 99,676,414 lei.

According to the source, BioMedLake aligns with the European Union's efforts to support initiatives compatible with the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), which aims to strengthen advanced digital infrastructure and accelerate innovation with an impact on healthcare.

The beneficiary and lead partner is the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. Project partners are the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, the Institute for Research and Development in Genomics, the National Institute for Research and Development in Biological Sciences and the Special Telecommunications Service.

The project's overall objective is to develop and implement an integrated digital ecosystem for medical research based on large-scale clinical and genomic data, with the aim of increasing the research, development and innovation capacity of the partners and facilitating the transfer of research results into clinical practice.

The project will establish a comprehensive Data Lake and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure for the collection, secure storage and processing of data from at least 30 partner medical institutions. The infrastructure will be complemented by an integrated medical research platform featuring a mobile application for patients, a clinical trial management system, research dashboards and connectivity interfaces.

A central component of the project is the development and validation of three artificial intelligence modules with direct applications in medical research: one for the curation, harmonisation and semantic standardisation of clinical data, one for semantic querying and multimodal clinical meta-search and one dedicated to clinical registries, cohort building, eligibility screening and the identification of research cohorts.

'Through BioMedLake, the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest and its partners aim to strengthen the interoperability of medical data at national level by aligning with international standards and encouraging the secondary use of aggregated medical data for research, the development of clinical decision-support algorithms and the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence in healthcare,' said Project Director Octavian Andronic.

The project will support the development of multicentre clinical trials, retrospective research, personalised medicine and advanced training for researchers and healthcare professionals. It will also produce 20 scientific papers and host two conferences to disseminate results, contributing to the international visibility of Romanian medical research. Dissemination activities will also include participation in national and international scientific conferences.

'BioMedLake represents a strategic investment in developing the infrastructure needed for the secondary use of medical data for research and innovation, in line with the objectives of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). In Romania, this field is still developing and, through this project, the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy and its partners aim to help build a national pillar for the responsible use of medical data through advanced digital technologies and artificial intelligence, in line with the European priorities promoted under the STEP initiative,' said Vice-Rector of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest Stefan Busnatu. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Roberto Stan; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)

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