TwinCare aims to develop an AI-powered Digital Twin platform to support clinical decision-making and improve the management of patients with chronic conditions and high healthcare needs.
By combining predictive AI models with real-world clinical data, the project enables continuous monitoring, early intervention, and personalized care pathways, helping healthcare professionals optimize treatment strategies, reduce unnecessary hospital use, and improve patient outcomes.
The project is led by Value for Health CoLAB, in partnership with NOVA Medical School, NOVA NSPH, NOVA FCT/NOVA.ID.FCT, Glintt Life, and Unidade Local de Saúde de Almada-Seixal. Together, the consortium combines expertise in clinical practice, public health, data science, and digital innovation to co-design, develop, and implement scalable, real-world healthcare solutions.
Patients with high utilization of primary care services (HU) and those with hip and knee osteoarthritis (HKOA) are major contributors to healthcare system strain and often experience fragmented care, delayed interventions, and a lack of personalized treatment.
This use case focuses on identifying patterns of service use and risk profiles. By predicting future care needs and potential escalation, it supports earlier and personalized interventions, contributing to improved care efficiency.
This use case focuses on enabling more personalized and effective care. Through predictive insights, it supports the optimization of treatment strategies based on expected response while modelling disease progression over time.
TwinCare follows a Participatory Action Research approach, engaging clinicians, researchers, and patients throughout the process to ensure relevance, usability, and real-world impact. This approach ensures that solutions are practical, user-centred, and aligned with real healthcare needs.
Define needs and challenges with stakeholders, ensuring alignment with clinical realities by identifying key pain points and shaping solutions that address real-world healthcare challenges needs.
Build AI models, focusing on robust, data-driven and scalable systems that ensure transparency, reliability, and, seamless integration with existing clinical infrastructures and workflows.
Integrate and test solutions in clinical settings, supporting adoption by healthcare professionals, assessing impact on decision-making and efficiency, and refining tools based on user feedback.
Value For Health CoLAB (VOH) is a private non-profit association and part of the network of Collaborative Laboratories (CoLABs) recognized by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Founded by Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, CUF, Vodafone, and Fraunhofer Portugal, VOH’s mission is to co-create and validate innovative healthcare delivery solutions, bridging research with market-ready applications.
With expertise in biomedical data science, software development, health economics, engineering, and UX/UI design, VOH adopts participatory approaches to co-develop solutions with patients and healthcare professionals.
To date, VOH has led 16 funded projects, participated in 5 international research networks, collaborated with 11 hospitals and 9 startups, engaged hundreds of healthcare professionals and patients, and contributed to more than 40 scientific publications.
VOH coordinates the consortium and leads the value assessment, ensuring alignment with real-world healthcare system needs.
NOVA Medical School (NMS) advances education, research, and community engagement, fostering collaboration among clinical and biomedical researchers, nutritionists, healthcare professionals, and patients to drive innovation. It is part of the Lisbon Academic Clinical Centre and the EIT Health network.
Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC) supports pre-clinical, clinical, public health, and health services research. Coordinated by NMS, its mission is to generate evidence to improve clinical practice, inform health policy, and optimize healthcare services. CHRC has extensive experience in epidemiological studies, including participant recruitment, mobile diagnostics, laboratory analyses, and fieldwork support.
NMS leads the Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases Cohort (EpiDoC), a population-based cohort representative of Portugal, which over the past decade has provided valuable insights enabling the characterization of osteoarthritis in Portugal and the identification of factors associated with increased disability.
NLeveraging its expertise in clinical research and behavioral science, NMS will provide access to real-world data from patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis, supporting the development of the digital twin model.
NOVA National School of Public Health (NOVA NSPH) is a leading research institution dedicated to addressing current and future public health challenges, with a strong focus on innovation and social impact. Its work is centred on producing high-quality evidence to improve population health and well-being, while contributing to the strengthening of healthcare systems.
A key priority of NOVA NSPH is the translation of research into practical, scalable, and replicable solutions applicable across diverse real-world settings, ensuring that scientific knowledge effectively informs decision-making, policy development, and the implementation of health interventions. Its research team is multidisciplinary, bringing together expertise in psychology, economics, law and health ethics, and implementation science.
Strongly connected to clinical and policy environments, NOVA NSPH actively contributes to the design, implementation, and evaluation of health interventions, technologies, and policies. Within TwinCare, it will assess the economic feasibility, adoption, and implementation of the AI-based solution, ensuring its sustainability within the healthcare system.
NOVA School of Science and Technology (NOVA FCT) is one of Portugal’s leading public institutions in engineering and scientific research, hosting around 8,000 students. It is structured into 13 academic departments and 18 research centres, and actively participates in nine Collaborative Laboratories (CoLABs). Its researchers have been awarded 21 European Research Council (ERC) grants — the highest concentration among Portuguese universities — reflecting a strong commitment to excellence and international research collaboration. The institution maintains strategic partnerships with leading organisations such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Texas at Austin, and plays an active role in both European and national R&D initiatives.
NOVA.ID.FCT is a private non-profit organisation based at NOVA FCT that serves as the legal entity for its R&D activities. With extensive experience in large-scale research programmes, including FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, it contributes to the project through the LIBPhys Biosignals group, bringing advanced expertise in predictive analytics, AI model development, and user-centred digital innovation.
Within the project, NOVA.ID.FCT play a key role in the development of AI models and the optimization of the Digital Twin’s usability, ensuring a robust, intuitive, and user-adapted solution, as well as in designing an evidence-based platform and translating results to support healthcare decision-making.
The Unidade Local de Saúde de Almada Seixal (ULSAS), integrates Hospital Garcia de Orta, E.P.E. (HGO) and the Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde Almada-Seixal (ACES Almada-Seixal). Its mission is to ensure the integrated provision of primary, hospital, continuing, and palliative healthcare, promoting the health and quality of life of citizens throughout their life cycle. This is achieved through efficient service organization, resource optimization, and the development of research, innovation, and intersectoral actions that add value to healthcare delivery.
Within the framework of continuous improvement in healthcare quality and the appropriate use of National Health Service (SNS) resources, the High Users Resolution Group (GRHU) was established in 2017 as a partnership between HGO and ACES Almada-Seixal. Its objective is to study and intervene with high users, reducing the inappropriate use of the General Emergency Department (SUG) at HGO (ULSAS), while improving health outcomes. The GRHU multidisciplinary team is composed of social workers, nurses, and physicians from both hospital care and primary healthcare. It operates strategically within an integrated care approach and, through individualized, multidisciplinary, and multi-centred management of each patient/family, aims to develop personalized care plans, strengthen coordination across different levels of care, mitigate clinical and social determinants associated with high utilization, and promote more appropriate and responsible use of emergency services, thereby reducing associated costs.
By the end of 2025, the GRHU team had followed a total of 599 HU. Integrated management and monitoring of these patients showed significant results: comparing the 12 months before the first HU Multidisciplinary Consultation with the 12 months after the last consultation, there was a 63% reduction in the average number of emergency episodes and a 65% reduction in hospital admissions. Considering that a large proportion of HU of the emergency department are also frequent users of primary care services, the GRHU team is focused on developing support models within primary healthcare units, aimed at ensuring integrated and coordinated management of these complex cases.
Within the TwinCare project, ULSAS ensures that the solution aligns with the real needs of patients and healthcare professionals, providing access to real-world clinical data to support the development and validation of the Digital Twin.
Glintt Life is a leading Iberian technology provider for the healthcare sector, with over 30 years of experience and a strong presence in hospitals and pharmacies. It develops and implements data-driven solutions that transform complex information into actionable insights, enabling more informed and strategic decision-making.
The company maintains a strong commitment to innovation through continuous investment in research and development, both internally and in collaboration with academic partners. With a focus on process optimization and data science, its Data Intelligence Unit drives the development of advanced analytical approaches tailored to healthcare contexts.
Glintt Life ensures the technological integration and deployment of solutions in real-world healthcare environments, contributing to digital transformation and improving efficiency, decision-making, and patient care.
Discover the latest news, milestones, and insights from our journey to transform healthcare through digital innovation, AI, and stakeholder-driven value assessment.
The VOH team actively participated in the BIOSTEC Conference 2026, contributing to three days of discussions on digital health innovation. The team presented the poster Digital Twins in Healthcare: Conceptualisation and Use Case Definition, proposing a structured framework for the development of digital twins in real-world healthcare settings.
Find more information about this work here.
March 2026
Whether you’re a healthcare professional, researcher, or policymaker, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to learn more about TwinCare or explore collaboration opportunities.
Contact information of the leading organisation (VOH).
