Joan XXIII Hospital takes part in a project to apply artificial intelligence in Catalonia’s ICUs

The Joan XXIII University Hospital of Tarragona is participating in a pioneering project aimed at improving clinical management and quality of care in intensive care units (ICUs) within Catalonia’s integrated public healthcare system (SISCAT) through the combined use of data and artificial intelligence (AI). This initiative forms part of the Critic.CAT project, led by CatSalut and coordinated by the TIC Salut i Social Foundation, with the goal of optimising ICU services in SISCAT centres through digital health tools.

ICUs generate large volumes of patient data, as monitoring and life-support tools continuously record information. At Joan XXIII Hospital, this data has been integrated and used for years to enhance clinical management, research, and outcome evaluation. Building on this experience, the Catalan Health Service has tasked the hospital with designing a methodology to develop a critical care data management centre, which will serve as a model for the entire Catalan public healthcare system.

This centre and its AI platform will enable the real-time collection, integration, and analysis of ICU data from SISCAT hospitals and the Medical Emergency System (SEM). This will support clinical decision-making, improve coordination between hospitals, and create an automated, real-time map of ICU activity across Catalonia to optimise available resources and strengthen care delivery.

“We are working to position ourselves at the forefront of data and AI use in intensive care medicine. Centralising and sharing information will allow for more efficient management and better outcomes for critically ill patients,” says Maria Bodí, Head of the Intensive Care Medicine Department at Joan XXIII Hospital. The project team includes clinicians, biomedical engineers, and data specialists collaborating to deploy the infrastructure and methodology for this new model, aligned with Catalonia’s health data space.

At present, the data management model developed in Tarragona is also being implemented at the Josep Trueta Hospital in Girona.

The project’s details and progress were presented today, 12 November, during the III Critical Care Data Analysis Summit, held at the Seminari de Tarragona. The event brought together experts from across Catalonia to discuss the role of data and AI in improving care for critically ill patients and to share innovative experiences in data- and AI-driven healthcare.