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The University of Birmingham is part of a major new €19 million project aimed at breaking new ground for the development of treatments for millions of patients with heart disease in Europe. BigData@Heart is a five-year project run by the Innovative Medicines Initiative , a European public-private consortium consisting of patient networks, pharmaceutical companies and organisations including the University of Birmingham. The consortium will use healthcare data to deliver better care for people who suffer heart attacks, heart failure and the most common heart rhythm disturbance, atrial fibrillation. Despite major progress in treatments, these conditions present a substantial burden to the estimated 30 million people in Europe who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, and to the healthcare systems that care for them. The project will utilise patient data from millions of patients across Europe to develop improved and personalised treatments, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach. Professor Paulus Kirchhof , deputy director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences who is leading the work for the University of Birmingham, said: "We are very excited to be part of the BigData@Heart project and the ultimate goal is to develop a data-driven translational research platform of unparalleled scale, driving drug development through advanced analytics. "Working collaboratively with leading experts, the University of Birmingham will be instrumental in shaping treatment and management of cardiovascular diseases in Europe.