Last week, CARAMEL Project Coordinator Ivan Macia and his colleague Nerea Arrarte from Vicomtech, attended the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC): the largest cardiology congress in the world. This year’s edition took place at the IFEMA Trade Fair Center in Madrid, gathering thousands of professionals from across disciplines: from cardiologists and researchers to innovators in biotech, pharma, diagnostics, and digital health.

As a pioneering project committed to transforming cardiovascular disease prevention for women aged 40–60, particularly during the menopausal transition, CARAMEL team joined this prestigious forum to engage with the latest scientific advances and strengthen its ties with key experts in the field.

During a series of scientific talks, thematic events, debates, exchanges, in person interactions and product exhibition, the professionals had the chance to know the principal advances in the field, updating their knowledge and creating new opportunities for research, improve clinical practice and generate synergies and business.

The ESC Congress offered a unique opportunity for the CARAMEL team to deepen its knowledge in several key areas aligned with the project’s mission. Among the most relevant insights were:

• Gain key insights from experts on risk estimation algorithms and the role of different biomarkers, including their variability, prognostic value, and utility for stratification, with a focus on sex- and gender-specific differences.
  
• Confirm that digital and AI-enabled tools are gaining strong momentum in cardiovascular diagnosis, decision support, and disease management, with several examples already proving their clinical utility in trials.
  
• Recognise that women’s cardiovascular health is receiving increasing attention, with emphasis on unmet needs such as awareness gaps, disparities in diagnosis and prescription, and the importance of women-specific risk factors linked to pregnancy and menopause.

These insights confirm the relevance of CARAMEL’s approach to personalised, technology-enabled prevention.

The congress also allowed the project team to meet in person with distinguished members of the CARAMEL External Advisory Board (EAB), a multidisciplinary group of internationally recognised experts guiding the scientific, clinical, and ethical dimensions of the project.

Angela Maas

A world-renowned expert in women’s heart disease, Angela emphasised the importance of integrating women-specific risk factors into cardiovascular risk assessment and highlighted the need for further interdisciplinary research across cardiology, gynecology, primary care, women’s health, biology, and engineering. She also underlined the importance of awareness in primary care and among women themselves, particularly on hypertension control. Together, we discussed stratification tools beyond calculators, such as Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) scoring.

Carlos Escobar

With extensive research on hypertension and clinical applications of digital therapies, Carlos featured the CARAMEL project during his tutorial on “New tools in cardiovascular risk assessment.” He stressed the role of novel AI-based algorithms with multimodal data and diagnostic technologies, core elements of CARAMEL’s approach.

Kimon Stamatelopoulos

An expert in early detection of cardiovascular disease, Kimon expressed strong interest in CARAMEL’s observational study on women’s cardiovascular risk. He provided valuable feedback on biomarkers such as ultrasound-based measurements and image-based atherosclerotic plaque detection and assessment, both highly relevant for our work.

Our presence at ESC 2025 reinforces CARAMEL’s commitment to evidence-based innovation, with a strong focus on gender equity in cardiovascular health. The knowledge gained and connections strengthened in Madrid will feed directly into our ongoing work, including:

• Finalizing the first version of our AI risk stratification model,
  
• Advancing clinical study protocols,
  
• Co-designing digital tools with women across Europe and Latin America,
  
• Promoting awareness and inclusive policy dialogue.

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