The Observa team recently visited the FEUGA (Fundación Empresa-Universidad Gallega) operational headquarter in the city of A Coruña (Spain) for a strategic meeting with Carlos Iglesias, marking an important milestone in the HEREDITARY project’s communication and dissemination efforts.
The meeting brought together Observa representatives with Carlos Iglesias from FEUGA to discuss the progress of the HEREDITARY Project’s Work Package 8 (WP8). This WP is led by FEUGA and focuses on communication, dissemination, intellectual property, and innovation. Being responsible for the project’s website and overall communication strategy, FEUGA plays a crucial coordinating role in ensuring the project’s achievements reach the right audiences.
FEUGA’s role in HEREDITARY
FEUGA (Fundación Empresa-Universidad Gallega) brings extensive experience in knowledge and technology transfer from the Galician University system to society. Within HEREDITARY, the foundation leads the development of a comprehensive strategy to promote project results among stakeholders, researchers, and the general public, ensuring sustainability beyond the project’s completion.
Making complex health data accessible
A key focus of the meeting was the importance of communicating health research data to non-experts: a challenge at the heart of HEREDITARY’s mission. The project follows a Citizen Science approach, creating spaces for meaningful dialogue between clinicians, researchers, patients, and associations to make health research more inclusive and transparent.
The HEREDITARY project, which began in January 2024, aims to transform disease detection and treatment by integrating multimodal health data, including genetic and clinical information, through a secure federated framework. With 18 partners across Europe and the United States, effective communication is essential to translate this complex research into actionable insights for patients, policymakers, and the public.
Tools for engagement
Through its Health Social Laboratories (HSLs), the project is co-creating solutions with those most directly affected by neurodegenerative diseases, ensuring that patient needs and perspectives are embedded in research innovation. The project website, managed by FEUGA, serves as a central hub for public dissemination, featuring regular updates on publications, events, and project progress.
What this means for health communication
The meeting underscored a critical point: advanced health data and AI-driven methods must remain understandable and trustworthy for the people who use them. As healthcare becomes increasingly complex, effective health communication is vital for building health literacy and empowering patients to navigate healthcare services. This aligns with HEREDITARY’s goal of changing how we approach healthcare by unlocking previously inaccessible insights while maintaining data privacy and security.
Stay tuned for more updates from the HEREDITARY project as we continue to bridge the gap between complex health research and public understanding.
