Behind CHAIN is a shared ambition: to make trustworthy artificial intelligence useful in everyday cardiovascular and related NCD care. The kick-off meeting brought this goal into focus, connecting the project’s clinical use cases with the data standards, technological infrastructure, evaluation methods and governance models needed to support their implementation.
Coordinated by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and co-funded through the EU4Health programme, CHAIN brings together 53 partners from 20 countries. The two-day meeting provided an opportunity to meet colleagues across the consortium, explore how the different areas of work connect and discuss the practical challenges ahead.
The opening session placed CHAIN in its wider European context. ESC President Cecilia Linde welcomed the consortium, followed by a video message from Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare. Fulvia Raffaelli, Head of Unit for Digital Health at DG SANTE, addressed CHAIN’s role in advancing the Safe Hearts Plan, while Paula Escudero Díaz, from the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), presented the EU4Health programme perspective. Project Coordinator Aline Abravanel and Scientific Coordinator Folkert Asselbergs introduced CHAIN’s mission, objectives and expected impact.
After the introductory speeches, the agenda was structured in lively and interactive breakout sessions to encourage participation and knowledge sharing.
One set of breakout sessions centred on the project’s six cardiovascular use cases. These span population-level cardiovascular risk prediction, clinical decision support, ECG-based triage, cardiac imaging, early detection of right-ventricular failure and cardiovascular screening using routine chest CT scans. Parallel discussions examined the technical foundations supporting CHAIN use cases and laying the ground for the future ecosystem's sustainability and expansion, i.e. the CardioData@EU platform, the repository of validated AI solutions, and the preparation and connection of high-quality standardised datasets.
Bringing clinical and technical teams together was a central feature of the programme. Joint sessions and plenary exchanges linked the needs of individual use cases with the infrastructure and data required to test and deploy solutions across different healthcare settings.
On the second day, attention turned to how this work will be carried out and evaluated. Sessions covered study protocols, AI evaluation, deployment guidance, ethical and legal governance, and regulatory challenges. Partners also explored the planned open call to expand the CHAIN community of data holders, alongside stakeholder engagement, communication and long-term sustainability.
Beyond the working sessions, the meeting created space for conversations and connections across organisations and disciplines. These constructive exchanges built the foundation of a cohesive collaboration environment that will be essential as the consortium moves from project launch into implementation.
Thank you to all partners and speakers who contributed to the two days, and to the ESC team for hosting the consortium at the European Heart House.
Explore the photo gallery below for a look back at CHAIN’s kick-off meeting.
