Brief and project description
QVida+ (Continuous Estimation of Quality of Life for Effective Clinical Decision Support) is a national initiative that aims to position Portugal at the forefront of digital health technologies and personalized patient care. Led by a co-promotion consortium, the initiative brings together a multidisciplinary ecosystem of technological partners, research institutes, and clinical experts, funded by regional operational programmes (FEDER / Norte 2020). Its goal is to develop a new generation of healthcare information systems built on wearable technology and continuous monitoring, creating a virtuous circle between technology providers, medical research centers, and healthcare professionals. The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, through LIACC, is one of the key research partners in this consortium.
The motivation behind QVida+ is straightforward: as chronic illnesses (such as oncology and cardiology) become increasingly prevalent, so does the risk of clinical complications caused by delayed or poorly evaluated patient data. Making healthcare monitoring "continuous" means ensuring that Quality of Life (QoL) and health status metrics are as accurate, real-time, and transparent as possible, fostering clinical trust and enhancing patient well-being without interfering with their daily lives.
Within this broader effort, LIACC's contribution focuses on computational learning, machine learning techniques, and data processing as a basis for building robust predictive algorithms. These algorithms standardize physical, behavioral, and environmental data collected through mobile and wearable devices. By combining automated data generation with medical knowledge, the work aims to make personalized QoL questionnaire prediction more rigorous, reproducible, and less intrusive than conventional static diagnostics.
The expected outcome is a functional information system prototype and automated tools that help clinical professionals assess whether their patients' health status behaves predictably before complications arise — turning abstract Quality of Life indicators into concrete, measurable, and actionable clinical criteria.
Period: June 2016 – June 2019