MULTIPULM sets out to reshape care for chronic respiratory diseases and multimorbidity (Press Release)

A new Horizon Europe initiative will bring digital innovation to multimorbidity care in Brazil, Serbia and Türkiye.

The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) has launched MULTIPULM, a €4.4 million, four-year project to develop a digital platform that supports care for people with chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) and multimorbidity. Multimorbidity, the co-existence of two or more long-term conditions, is a major driver of rising healthcare costs worldwide, with particular impact in low- and middle-income countries where access to integrated care and digital tools is limited.

MULTIPULM will co-create practical tools with patients, families and healthcare professionals to strengthen secondary prevention and day-to-day management. “We have put together a multidisciplinary consortium of professionals to address this urgent challenge,” said Konstantinos Vaianos, Project Coordinator. “Our framework is based on implementation research to ensure that our solutions are not only innovative but also feasible, acceptable, and adapted to each country’s specific socio-economic and cultural settings.”

The project will develop a multi-component patient intervention to improve quality of life and treatment adherence, an integrated care hub to support real-time, coordinated, multi-disciplinary care, and AI-driven analytics to flag potential adverse drug effects and predict hospital readmission risks. These interventions will be tested in pragmatic randomised controlled trials with 2,750 patients, assessing impact on health outcomes, quality of life and the quality of healthcare provision. The aim is to create a sustainable model that can be reproduced in other low- and middle-income settings.

“We ensure that MULTIPULM is not just a project, but a sustainable movement, one that builds local awareness, nurtures communities of practice, and trains implementation champions.”

“Real impact comes from people,” said Professor Shereen Nabhani-Gebara of Kingston University, who leads local capacity-building. “We ensure that MULTIPULM is not just a project, but a sustainable movement, one that builds local awareness, nurtures communities of practice, and trains implementation champions. It is about empowering patients, healthcare professionals and local leaders with the digital tools and knowledge they need to carry this vision forward beyond the project.”

The consortium brings together 18 organisations from 10 countries: Uni Systems (Greece), Artemis Research & Innovation (Romania), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (Greece), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (Portugal), Wellics (United Kingdom), AINIGMA Technologies (Belgium), Foundation for Research and Technology (Greece), Future Needs (Cyprus), Pharmecons Easy Access  (United Kingdom), Kingston University (United Kingdom), SHINE 2Europe (Portugal), University of Coimbra (Portugal), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), Edson Queiroz Foundation (Brazil), Institute for Pulmonary Diseases of Vojvodina (Serbia), Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health (Türkiye), and Mandat International (Switzerland), with Uni Systems serving as coordinator.

MULTIPULM will produce evidence-based guidance for policymakers to support the implementation of integrated care models and to contribute to stronger Universal Health Coverage indicators in the target countries.

Follow the latest project news, publications, and results at multipulm.eu/resources and through MULTIPULM’s LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube channels.

Media Contact

Vasilis Bouronikos Dissemination and Communication Lead, MULTIPULM Future Needs Management Consulting Ltd vasilis@futureneeds.eu 

Funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement 101226783). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.