Lars Asker, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, and Project Manager.
Associate Professor Lars Asker at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, leads the project.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from Danderyds University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, and the regional health board of Stockholm. The project is funded by a recent agreement between Stockholm City Council and Stockholm University regarding collaboration in areas of research, development, innovation, and education.

Heart failure is a serious medical condition resulting in a considerably increased risk of premature death, frequent hospitalisations and decreased quality of life.

The prevalence of heart failure in Sweden is around two percent, and more than ten percent at the age of 80, or above. Proper medication can substantially improve the conditions for many heart failure patients and is in many cases essential for reducing the risk of premature death and hospitalisations.

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has issued national guidelines for cardiac care, including recommendations for the treatment of patients with heart failure. In a recent evaluation of the compliance with the guidelines, it was noted that for heart failure, only three of the county councils in Sweden reach the target levels regarding basic medication.

The main purpose of this project is to analyse administrative healthcare data at the Stockholm County Council to identify differences in treatment among groups of heart failure patients, find factors for the effectiveness of treatment, and provide support for improving the treatment of heart failure patients.

The analysis will be undertaken by applying and developing state-of-the-art machine learning techniques for finding patterns in sequential data, clustering and predictive modelling, including survival analysis.