REPO4EU researchers launch SMART, the tool that simplifies decision models for healthcare innovation
Decision-analytic models play a vital role in healthcare, helping researchers, policymakers, and clinicians evaluate the cost-effectiveness and value of new interventions. Yet, building these models can be complex, especially in early-stage research or data-limited contexts such as drug repurposing or rare diseases.
To address this challenge, researchers in the REPO4EU consortium have developed SMART, a structured, step-by-step tool designed to guide users through making, reporting, and justifying simplified modelling choices tailored to specific decision contexts.
Teebah Abu-Zahra, Health Economics Researcher at Maastricht UMC+, led the development of the tool alongside other colleagues involved in REPO4EU. In this interview, she explains the motivation behind SMART, how it can support innovators and decision-makers, and what role it plays in advancing drug repurposing and precision medicine.
Hi Teebah! Can you tell us, in a few words, what is SMART?
SMART is a practical tool built to guide researchers through the process of making, reporting, and justifying simplified healthcare modelling choices, in a step-by-step structured framework. It helps users understand the trade-offs between the model’s simplicity, and its transparency and validity in each model feature. Overall, SMART promotes fit-for-purpose modelling that is appropriate for the specific decision context and the constraints that come with it.
What prompted the need to create this tool?
In short, SMART was born out of the need to make decision models more accessible, more transparent, and more useful for those who need it most, especially when time and data are in short supply.
When we first started this work, our goal was to develop practical guidance for researchers who aren't health economics experts but still need to use decision-analytic models to inform important healthcare decisions.
We were thinking not only of scientists and innovators working on drug repurposing research in academic settings or SMES, but of anyone who, despite having limited time, data or technical expertise, still needs to assess the value of their healthcare innovation.
Why is this important within a healthcare innovation context?
There is currently no clear accessible guidance tailored to developing decision models in contexts such as designing an early-stage intervention, testing a repurposed drug, or working in a resource-constrained setting.
Decision-analytic models are powerful tools in health economics, used to compare healthcare interventions based on their potential cost-effectiveness. They support decisions at all stages of development, from research prioritization to pricing and reimbursement. But building these models isn’t straightforward.
As we looked through the existing literature and resources, we saw a growing gap in supporting decision models development in contexts where simplicity isn’t just a preference, but a necessity.
Think, for example, of precision mechanism-based drug repurposing, where hundreds of drug-indication pairs need to be screened for potential value, often without clinical or cost data. Or rare diseases and health system planning in low- and middle-income countries, where timelines are tight and data is sparse. In these scenarios, simple early-stage models can provide immense value, by highlighting unmet medical needs, estimating societal value and guiding early pricing discussions.
Who are the end users of SMART?
We believe SMART will be valuable to a wide range of users — from health economic decision modellers all the way to regulatory bodies, health technology assessment agencies, peer reviewers, policymakers, clinicians, and even other healthcare decision makers.
Apart from enabling reviewers and users to better assess whether a model is suitable to inform healthcare decisions, we also see value in using SMART as a training and educational tool for non-experts in health economic decision modelling, including scientists, innovators and public health professionals.
Now that it’s been officially released, we’re excited to see how SMART will be applied in real-world settings to support more transparent, efficient and fit-for-purpose modelling.
How has it been received by the healthcare community so far? Have you had any feedback from peers who have used the tool yet?
Yes! One of my colleagues is already using SMART in her own modelling research paper. She’s conducting an early value assessment (EVA) to evaluate the potential cost-effectiveness of seven digital technologies in addition to standard care in the United Kingdom; she said she found SMART very helpful to ensure transparent reporting and justification of the simple modelling choices.
We are also currently applying SMART in a REPO4EU pilot study involving patients with thyroid cancer. We can already see the value of our tool in guiding the development of a health economic decision model within a context of limited data and urgent need for new therapeutic options, as seen in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer and poorly differentiated thyroid cancer.
What was your role in the development of SMART? And who else was involved in the process?
I developed SMART from its initial concept through to design and implementation, with the continuous support and guidance from Manuela Joore and Sabine Grimm, both also from Maastricht UMC+. My primary responsibilities included identifying gaps in existing health economic modelling guidance, shaping the framework and content of the tool and conducting interviews and workshops to help guide the SMART development.
The whole process also benefited from the contributions of Mirre Scholte from Radboud UMC and others from the REPO4EU consortium, including Prof. Joe Loscalzo and Adam Raymakers from Harvard Medical School. Together we identified key features of health economic decision models based on reviewing key literature, established guidelines, and our collective expertise.
To facilitate consistent use of SMART, we also developed a glossary and applied the tool in an illustrative case for planning a health economic decision model for a repurposed drug for treatment-resistant hypertension.
While the core development was conducted at KEMTA (the Clinical Epidemiology & Medical Technology Assessment at Maastricht UMC+) we also obtained extensive feedback through in-depth interviews and expert workshops with health economic decision modellers and model users, which helped us massively in refining the tool and inform key development decisions.
How will SMART contribute towards the development of the REPO4EU Platform and the overall mission of the project?
With the support of the Egnosis team, SMART will be integrated into the REPO4EU Platform to make it directly accessible to researchers and innovators engaged in drug repurposing research.
With the help of SMART, alongside other essential HTA resources on the platform, we aim to empower these researchers to develop health economic decision models to assess the value of their innovations independently and efficiently. This, in turn, promotes a more transparent and systematic approach to health economic evaluation in mechanism-based drug repurposing and precision medicine development, ultimately supporting improved decision-making and resource allocation for developing new therapeutic options that address unmet patient needs.
The SMART tool
Can we make health economic decision models as simple as possible, but not simpler?
Sounds interesting?
Follow the link to access version 1.0 of the SMART tool
REPO4EU launches DrugRepoChatter, an AI timesaver tool for drug repurposing researchers
Sifting through the vast amount of scientific literature can be overwhelming, especially in fast-evolving fields like drug repurposing, where the sheer volume of publications, databases and tools available can pose a significant challenge for researchers trying to stay up to date with all the latest releases.
In a bid to tackle this problem, experts from the REPO4EU Consortium have joined forces to develop DrugRepoChatter, an AI-powered tool that helps researchers navigate through the relevant literature for mechanism-based drug repurposing in a faster and more efficient way.
Dr. Fernando M. Delgado Chaves, Research Group Leader at University of Hamburg’s Institute for Computational Systems Biology (CoSyBio), spearheaded the development of the tool, working alongside REPO4EU partners from other institutions to bring it to fruition. Drawing from his expertise in bioinformatics and generative AI, he explains in this interview his approach to the design and the methodology he adopted to create DrugRepoChatter, offering an up-close view on how it works and its capabilities.
Hi Fernando! Congratulations for the successful launch of DrugRepoChatter.
What prompted the need to create this tool?
Honestly, it's the sheer explosion of scientific papers out there! Keeping up, especially in a field that's moving as fast as drug repurposing, is just… insane. As researchers ourselves, we were constantly drowning in papers, trying to find the right tools, methods, and insights. It felt like there was so much great knowledge, but it was all scattered and hard to access efficiently.
That's the real problem DrugRepoChatter solves. We wanted to build something that acts like your personal expert assistant, helping you cut through the noise and find the crucial information fast. Think of it as taking all that scattered knowledge and putting it into one place, making it super easy to get to what you need. No more endless PDF wading! You ask a question, and boom, you get answers grounded in solid, curated literature.
How do you envision researchers using it? Can you think of a specific scenario of when they would be accessing it?
Picture this: you're a researcher, maybe a bioinformatician or data analyst, and you're knee-deep in a drug repurposing project. You've got this awesome dataset, and you're wondering, "What computational tools are actually good for this kind of data?" Instead of spending days Googling and digging through papers, you just hop onto DrugRepoChatter and ask, "What are the best AI tools for analyzing transcriptomics data in drug repurposing?" Within seconds, the chatbot gives you expert-selected articles that break down the best methods, compare them, and even link you to the databases you need. It's like getting instant, expert advice.
Or, imagine you're a clinician or biomedical researcher. You've got unique patient data and you're trying to figure out the right analysis techniques. Instead of getting lost in literature reviews, you ask DrugRepoChatter,“Which databases can I use to find validated clinical biomarker discovery in neurodegenerative diseases?” And bam! You get curated insights, pointing you to the best approaches backed by solid research. It’s purely about making research faster and smarter.
What degree of knowledge do researchers need to have about AI tools? Do they need prior experience using other similar platforms?
Zero, nada! Honestly, we made DrugRepoChatter super simple on purpose. You absolutely do not need to be an AI guru or have used chatbots before. If you can type a question, then you can use DrugRepoChatter – it’s as simple as that. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, we wanted to make sure this tool is accessible to everyone.
The database contains 285 open-access articles, which have been selected by experts from the REPO4EU.
Who was involved, and what was the selection criteria?
It has been a joint effort, with many colleagues from across the whole REPO4EU Consortium involved.
We had experts from all over Europe – University of Hamburg (UHAM), Technical University of Munich (TUM), GeneSurge, STALICLA, University of Vienna (UNIVIE), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Maastricht University (UM), even Concentris! It was a big group effort.
And the selection criteria were pretty rigorous. We used a structured annotation process in Paperpile, where 13 of us from six different institutions collaboratively labeled publications. We categorized reviews by focus – clinical, computational, tools. Databases had to be usable, either downloadable or via an Application Programming Interface (API). Methods and tools were classified by strategy, technique, and usability – code, package, graphical user interface, API.
Basically, we wanted things that were actually useful for REPO4EU’s work, especially our tasks in WP2 on real-world data-driven AI in drug repurposing. And of course, they had to be either highly cited – 30+ PubMed citations – or very recent, published in the last 5 years.
I want to take this opportunity to mention some of the key people involved in the curation: Markus List, Quirin Manz, Judith Bernett and Johannes Kersting from TUM; Michael Hartung, Andreas Maier, Olga Tsoy and myself from UHAM; Emre Guney, Montserrat Puiggròs and Francesco Sirci at STALICLA; Julia Guthrie from UNIVIE; Ruisheng Wang at BWH; Robert Löwe from GeneSurge; Hermann Mucke from HMPC; and Harald Schmidt from UM.
As a bioinformatician, what was your role in this whole process?
I spearheaded the development, really making sure DrugRepoChatter brought together cutting-edge AI with a user-friendly design for researchers from all sorts of backgrounds. I’m personally fascinated by large language models (LLMs), and I quickly realized they were a game-changer for how we access scientific info. Think about the time we’re saving researchers by using AI!
I worked closely with computational biologists, clinicians, data scientists within REPO4EU. Collaborators like Lisa Marie Spindler, Farzaneh Firoozbakht and Andreas Maier were key in building the backend, while our clinical partners helped us make sure it was really useful from a translational perspective. It was truly interdisciplinary, which is what makes this project so special.
Now that DrugRepoChatter has gone live, how has it been received by the research community so far?
Have you had any feedback from researchers who have used it?
We know many researchers have accessed it already and are actively using it, which has been really encouraging! The response is mostly about how much time DrugRepoChatter saves on literature searches – that's a big win. This feedback is gold for us because it helps us keep improving the tool, making sure it really meets the needs of the community. We’re still refining it based on what users are telling us, but yeah, overall the initial response has been great!
You mentioned earlier you wanted to make this tool accessible to everyone.
Why was this an important element in the conception of DrugRepoChatter?
We wanted to go a step further than just open access. We aimed to make this knowledge even more accessible by building tools that make it easy to find and use. And let's be clear: DrugRepoChatter, and tools like it, are completely dependent on open access science. Imagine trying to build this chatbot with articles locked behind paywalls – it's impossible! The chatbot needs to read the articles, to understand them, to answer questions based on them. That's why open science isn't just important for researchers; it's fundamental to creating the very technology that can democratize scientific knowledge and accelerate progress.
DrugRepoChatter
Discover our Drug Repurposing Chatting Expert and start a conversation
Want to learn more?
Read the research article 'DrugRepoChatter: A Drug Repurposing Expert Chatbot Curated by the REPO4EU Consortium’ on ScienceOpen
Inside RExPO24: Co-chairs Harald Schmidt & Jennifer Martin reflect on this year’s conference
In the midst of RExPO24, we managed to catch up with conference co-chairs Harald Schmidt (REPO4EU Project Coordinator) and Jennifer Martin (Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at University of Newcastle).
During our conversation with them, we found out more about their decision to join forces for this year’s conference, how their collaboration is helping to build bridges between Europe and Australasia, and how the RExPO series is positively contributing to the drug repurposing community worldwide.
Hi Harald and Jennifer! Congratulations on the success of RExPO24. Tell us, what made you decide to join forces this year?
Harald: I contacted Jennifer because bringing repurposed drugs to patients isn’t something you can just do in Europe, it has to be commercially viable worldwide. Not many countries are heavily exploring drug repurposing like Australia is, and Jennifer’s experience with that has been particularly intense and relevant. So, we connected and decided to put our experiences in common, which led us to hosting this year’s conference together with one goal in mind: to continue driving innovation in medicine and health science.
Jennifer: Yes, that’s right! When Harald contacted us about this meeting, we were thrilled. Often, we feel like the “little brother down under,” and having the big voice of Europe working with us gives the whole drug repurposing mission some gravitas. It shows that this is a safe and innovative approach, and like Harald said, one that would struggle to go ahead unless we work closely together across multiple countries and disciplines.
What are the potential benefits of this European-Australasian collaboration?
Harald: As part of REPO4EU, one of our objectives is to grow a global network of specialists that champion mechanism-based approaches for drug repurposing. We’re bringing together researchers, clinicians, startups, patient groups and policymakers from all over the world, and working closely with Jennifer and her team in Australia directly contributes to this mission. It’s very crucial for us to engage in the political side as well, because drug repurposing decisions are made country by country, so we cannot be working in isolation; drug repurposing has the capacity to bring amazing opportunities for patients, so we need to continue working hand-in-hand to push for changes in how these decisions are made.
Jennifer: Absolutely! We’ve had this need in Australia and New Zealand for a few years, and our team has become quite impatient with how long it’s taking to get a proper pathway. We have clinical groups and researchers doing great work, but we can’t use it in a clinical setting because treatments need to be tested for safety, quality and efficacy. They also need public subsidies because people can’t afford them otherwise. So, we’ve spent a lot of energy advocating for this and showing our regulators that we can produce safe outcomes for patients with these treatments. Joining a big initiative like RExPO offers us opportunities for collaboration and relationship building between scientists and clinicians in both regions, so we can hopefully move things forward faster — but always with the patients’ safety and wellbeing at the center.
This is the third edition of the conference. What are the key aspects that have stood out for you, compared to previous years?
Harald: I remember the first year, when we hosted it in Maastricht, the big majority of the speakers were members of the REPO4EU consortium. For the second edition, which was celebrated in Stockholm, we started seeing more people approaching us to speak at the conference. This time in Munich, I would say about 80% of speakers are from the outside, which shows me that the idea is catching on and gaining validation within the drug repurposing community.
Jennifer: One of the good things about this conference is the diversity of skills demonstrated throughout the program. For example, this year we’ve seen even more interesting adaptive design trials and AI tools that could help us study drugs more efficiently. This kind of innovation helps overcome barriers, like the high cost of including thousands of patients in trials. Listening to all the talks has been very inspiring, and this exchange of knowledge will help to empower other researchers to improve their own processes.
Harald: Another main point is that we keep seeing more and more success stories, where clinicians and companies are achieving tangible results and bringing new benefits for patients. We’ve also made a conscious decision to engage more actively with patient organizations, particularly those for rare diseases, and being able to dedicate a whole session of the conference to this area has been very rewarding.
Jennifer: Yes, the engagement from consumer groups, pharmaceutical industry, and young researchers has also been incredible this year. It’s exciting to see the future of drug research being shaped by these enthusiastic and innovative minds.
One of the big highlights of this year’s conference was the launch of the Drug Repurposing Journal, in collaboration with ScienceOpen. What can you tell us about this milestone?
Harald: It’s been really wonderful getting to work with Stephanie Dawson and the ScienceOpen team on this, and we were very excited to announce the first issue in front of all the RExPO24 attendees. The Drug Repurposing Journal is diamond open access, which means no one has to pay to read it or to publish their research in it. It still goes through a thorough editorial and peer-reviewing process, but making it fully accessible to researchers working in drug repurposing from all over the world. I think this transparency that we’re bringing to the scientific publishing community is very refreshing.
Jennifer: I read the first edition of the journal and it’s fantastic! It includes interactive discussions and, because it’s open access, it allows for real dialogue about current research being conducted in our field. This journal marks a return to the roots of scientific research where ideas are openly discussed and debated, which helps to ensure our research is directed towards real-world benefits.
About RExPO24
RExPO24, the 3rd edition of our international series of conferences dedicated to Systems Medicine, Artificial Intelligence and Drug Repurposing, took place in Munich on 3-5 July 2024
Revisit the conference
Curious to learn more? Watch our video compilation for RExPO24
Co-chairs Harald Schmidt and Jennifer Martin on what we can expect from RExPO24
RExPO is back! Our annual conference on Systems Medicine, AI and Drug Repurposing will be celebrating its 3rd edition in Munich, on 3-5 July, co-chaired by: Harald Schmidt, Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at Maastricht University & REPO4EU Project Coordinator; and Jennifer Martin, Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at University of Newcastle in Australia.
With barely a month before the big event, we’ve decided to speak with this year’s co-chairs to hear directly from them what we can expect from RExPO24.
Hi Harald! Tell us, why have we chosen Munich to host RExPO24?
Harald: We’re going to Munich this year because it’s a major biotech hub in Europe, with many universities, hospitals and research organizations that are very translationally oriented. This third edition of our annual conference goes head to head with the BayOConnect Forum, an event organized by the Bavarian Biotech Cluster Development (BioM) which will attract a lot of SMEs that are currently translating their research work into patient application.
We’ve prepared a handover session with them, so when BayOConnect finishes on the 3rd of July they will pass the baton to us to officially kick off RExPO24 on that same afternoon, with a joint session fully dedicated to AI for drug repurposing and precision medicine.
What are some of the main themes we’ll be covering this year?
Harald: Our 3-day conference will be mostly dedicated to highlighting the latest research on bioinformatics applied to rare diseases, cancer and neurological diseases, and this year we also have a strong focus on regulatory and reimbursement processes and policies within the field of pharma innovation. I highly recommend people to check the conference agenda and the list of confirmed speakers, because we have many top-notch voices from all over the world!
Everything we’ll be discussing during RExPO24 ties in with a common thread: the application of AI tools to build a mechanistic approach to drug repurposing for the advancement of systems medicine globally. From our side, as a European consortium, we’re also very excited to introduce the first clinical results from REPO4EU, which we will be presenting alongside the features we’ve developed so far for our drug repurposing platform.
Jennifer, you attended RExPO23 in Stockholm as a speaker and now you’re coming back as Co-chair! What caught your attention from last year’s experience that made you excited about co-chairing the conference this year?
Jennifer: What was really exhilarating for me last year was getting to meet so many people from around the globe who were working in different aspects of drug repurposing. I was also very intrigued by the developments and applications of Artificial Intelligence applied to this field, as it’s not an area I’ve had a lot of experience in, so attending RExPO helped me understand the opportunities that AI might bring to this whole platform. And I can see that this year’s program got heaps more of AI, so I’m looking forward to catching up on all the latest developments that have happened since last October.
Also, like Harald mentioned, the reimbursement and regulation aspects are very important too, especially for clinical researchers who really want to get a drug through the repurposing process to be used in the clinical practice. So I’m very happy we’ll be spending some time this year focusing on this too. I’m genuinely super excited about the conference coming up in Munich and co-chairing it with Harald, and I hope to see many known and new faces there!
So, Harald, what can people expect from attending RExPO24? Can you give us a quick summary of what we can look forward to in Munich?
Harald: Be ready for 3 days packed with talks! But this is not like your usual medical conference, all our sessions will be very focused and dynamic. We know professors can talk about anything for hours, myself included, but for our conference we’ve asked all our speakers to compress their insights and knowledge into 15-minute presentations. Each session will be followed up by extensive discussion rounds, where the audience will be able to ask questions to the panelists. Apart from the main talks, we will also have brief poster presentations and we’ll be giving out a Young Investigator Award to one of the brilliant young scientists joining us for the conference.
We will of course have the usual coffee and tea breaks, but this time we will make it more fun! Because the EURO2024 championship is being held at the same time in Germany, we’ve planned a little football competition (soccer for our American and Australian friends) – I don’t want to give out too many details yet, as it will be a nice surprise, but all I’ll say is that you may be able to win the official ball of the European championship…
Overall, you can expect to meet many researchers, professors, scientists, patient advocates and entrepreneurs working at the forefront of global innovations to redefine the way we do medicine, once and for all. So, if you’re working or are interested in novel applications of drug repurposing, this conference is for you!
About RExPO24
RExPO24, the 3rd edition of our international series of conferences dedicated to Systems Medicine, Artificial Intelligence and Drug Repurposing, took place in Munich on 3-5 July 2024