The MAESTRIA project: Artificial intelligence at the service of innovation

MAESTRIA, an ultra-innovative project to better detect the atrial cardiomyopathy responsible for the onset of atrial fibrillation and embolic vascular accidents

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm disorder. Its incidence and prevalence are increasing rapidly, mainly in relation to the aging of the population. It can be estimated that in France around 750,000 people are victims of atrial fibrillation. This importance leads to a high cost of care that can be estimated at around 2.5 billion euros per year.

The MAESTRIA project (Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Early Detection of Stroke and Atrial Fibrillation) is a consortium of 18 partners from Europe, the United States and Canada responding to a H2020 call for projects on digital diagnosis.

What is a H2020 call for projects?

Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) is the research and innovation funding program of the European Union. This program aims to support resolutely interdisciplinary research projects, likely to respond to major economic and social challenges. It has been succeeded by Horizon Europe (2021-2027).

What are the challenges for this platform?

Atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder, is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and the leading cause of strokes in the heart. Frequently associated with heart failure, high blood pressure, but also with obesity and diabetes, AF affects approximately 1% of the general population and up to 8% of people over 80 years of age.

The challenge today in the clinical management of atrial fibrillation is to intervene before the onset of the arrhythmia, ie from the first signs of atrial cardiomyopathy.

Coordinated by Prof. Stéphane Hatem, director of the IHU-ICAN and of research unit 1166 at Sorbonne University, the MAESTRIA project therefore aims to develop a new approach for the rapid detection of atrial cardiomyopathy.

Lasting 5 years, this project requires several expertise within the IHU-ICAN:

  • Our Scientific Operations Department (SOS) for setting up and monitoring the project
  • Our legal department (PJV) for regulatory and ethical aspects
  • The ICAN Imaging imaging platform for the interpretation of imaging and ECG data and the identification of the most suitable algorithms to integrate into the MAESTRIA demonstrator
  • The clinical platform and the Omics platform of the IHU-ICAN to define the electrophysiological signature of the disease
  • The Biological Resource Center (CRB) for the proper conservation of the biological data of the study

By combining imaging data with physiological data (omics, clinical, etc.) of patients, this platform will be able to identify new therapeutic targets, in order to obtain improved diagnostic accuracy and will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of treatments by enabling better prevention of complications of atrial cardiomyopathy, such as atrial fibrillation and stroke.