combining ct diagnostic data and interventional approaches for futureproof cardiology care

coronary artery disease cad is caused by the pathological process in which fat cholesterol and calcium accumulate on the arterial wall it is the leading cause of mortality in the world affecting in 2019 about 200 million individuals or 25 of the global population and resulting in over 9 million deaths annually the prevalence of cad in the european union eu reached 511 in 2019 as a result cadrelated deaths topped 973000 in the eu in 2019 cad incidence is expected to rise further due to the increased prevalence of risk factors including obesity diabetes and increasing age for a patient with cad the care pathway still involves enormous variability and complexities inefficiencies and challenges in the treatment pathway are associated with poorer patient outcomes including recurrent cardiac events incomplete revascularization in complex patients and increased risk of mortality in patients with both acute and chronic cad due to the low sensitivity or specificity of the standard diagnostic tests 60 of cad patients unnecessarily undergo an ica as they are found to have nonsignificant coronary stenoses and do not require revascularizationcoronary computed tomography angiography ccta uses xray technology and computer processing to create a detailed 3d image of the coronary arteries revealing the degree of lumen obstruction it provides noninvasive access to the coronary anatomy also for asymptomatic patients who would normally not undergo invasive coronary angiography ica current guidelines adopted in the us eu and the uk recommend ccta as a firstline test for evaluation of cad positioning it as a gatekeeper to the cath labin combinect we will deliver a fully automated vendor agnostic cctaenabled workflow for chronic cad patients covering diagnosis treatment and followup combinect will close the gaps in the existing workflow for the treatment of chronic cad to improve hospital efficiency and patient outcomes aipowered ccta algorithms will enable definitive ischemia diagnosis accurate patient stratification and efficient planning of the interventions as well as patient specific followup while our focus on cad is justified by the large patient population the cctaenabled diagnostic accuracy and seamless workflow backed by the clinical evidence generated in five multicentre clinical trials will be directly transferable to other clinical domains using ctinterdisciplinarity is intrinsically built in the design of the combinect consortium combining expertise in cardiology cardiovascular radiology interventional cardiology cardiac surgery pharmacology with expertise from engineering medical imaging and ai the publicprivate partnership in combinect integrates top knowledge on several medical disciplines cardiology radiology interventional cardiology with engineering ai design expertise as well as the involvement of health economists and patient organizations to fill in the gaps of the current cad clinical pathways and prepare the ground for the imminent highvolume ccta needs beyond the research hospital settingclinical partners represent more than half of the combinect consortium ensuring access to large cohorts for stable cad patients combinect will also lay the ground for further research that is likely to trigger a paradigm shift towards the use of imaging markers in the medical treatment evaluation and clinical trial design