Vicomtech participates in the READI General Assembly in Madrid to advance more inclusive clinical research

Vicomtech participated in the READI Project General Assembly Plenary held in Madrid, where partners from across Europe gathered to reflect on a transformative first year of work. The meeting provided an opportunity to share progress, align on next steps, and reaffirm the consortium’s commitment to making clinical research more inclusive, accessible, and human-centred.

Within this mission, Vicomtech is leading the development of the AI parser, a technology designed to convert complex clinical texts into structured, patient-friendly, and actionable information.

READI, funded under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), aims to redesign how underserved and underrepresented (US/UR) patients interact with clinical research. Over the past year, the consortium has laid the foundations for a future in which clinical studies are easier to navigate, more transparent, and significantly more inclusive.

To achieve this, the project is developing practical tools, shared standards, and coordinated approaches that enable individuals, regardless of their background, to better understand, find, and participate in clinical studies.

Within the project, Work Package 2 (WP2) has a clear mission: to create a digital platform that helps patients, especially those historically excluded, learn about, understand, and connect with clinical studies in a simple, transparent, and genuinely supportive way. The platform is being designed as an open and inclusive space where clinical study information becomes easier to explore, multilingual, and aligned with real patient journeys.

The platform combines data standardisation, AI-powered insights, and community validation to make study information clearer and more actionable. Over the past year, WP2 has moved from conceptual ideas to concrete progress, including the definition of the platform architecture and a clear MVP capturing essential features to support US/UR communities.

An important milestone was also the establishment of early communication with the European Medicines Agency’s CTIS team. This dialogue helps ensure that the READI platform complements existing public resources rather than duplicating them, making it easier for patients to access reliable study information from the start.

Within WP2, Vicomtech leads Task 2.3, focused on improving how clinical study information is understood and used. Much of the data behind clinical trials, such as eligibility criteria, schedules, and protocol descriptions, exists in long, unstructured text formats that are difficult to interpret.

To address this challenge, Vicomtech is developing an AI-based parser capable of interpreting these complex documents and transforming them into structured, standardised information that improves matching between patients and clinical studies.

This work involves dataset preparation and annotation, designing the rules and guidance needed for AI to recognise key concepts, and continuously training and refining the models. Clinical experts are also involved through a dedicated validation interface, ensuring that the generated data is accurate, trustworthy, and aligned with the READI Common Data Model.

By combining AI innovation with expert validation, this work is helping create a platform where clinical study information becomes clearer, more consistent, and genuinely useful for patients, particularly those from underserved and underrepresented communities.