By Nayara Güércio
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There comes a point in every ambitious research project when the work starts to feel a little like opening a very full suitcase.
Everything is there. The ideas, the datasets, the pilot cases, the technical discussions, the clinical expertise, the ethical questions, the dissemination materials, the meetings, the publications, the partner updates, the acronyms. So many acronyms. And then, somehow, the task becomes making sure all of it is organised, useful, accessible, and ready for the people who need it most.
PREPARE-REHAB is now approaching that point.
We are getting closer to the final phase of the project, and this feels like the right moment to pause, look back, and recognise how much has already been achieved. Not in a “let us put everything in a spreadsheet and never speak of it again” way, although spreadsheets have, naturally, played their part. Rather, this is a moment to reflect on the journey from ideas to outputs, from technical development to real-world relevance, and from project milestones to meaningful conversations about the future of rehabilitation.
PREPARE-REHAB began with a strong ambition: to support more personalised rehabilitation for people living with chronic conditions and disabilities through responsible, data-driven, AI-supported tools. That ambition has never been small. It has required clinical insight, technical development, ethical reflection, patient-centred thinking, standardised data, communication across disciplines, and a shared willingness to ask difficult questions.
Because, we all know that bringing AI into healthcare is not a matter of sprinkling digital fairy dust over clinical practice and hoping for the best. It requires trust. It requires transparency. It requires careful validation, meaningful data, and a serious commitment to ensuring that tools are developed with, and not merely for, the people and professionals who will use them.
Over the course of the project, PREPARE-REHAB has grown into a rich and active collaboration. Partners have worked across pilot cases, research outputs, dissemination activities, clinical discussions, publications, events, podcast episodes, newsletters, and stakeholder engagement. The project website has become a knowledge hub for updates, reflections, research outputs, and accessible explanations of our work. Our communications have also become more regular, more connected, and more human-centred, helping the project speak not only to specialists, but also to wider audiences interested in AI, rehabilitation, chronic illness, disability, and the future of healthcare.
One of the strongest signs of progress has been the way PREPARE-REHAB has moved beyond internal project work and into public conversation. Through blog posts, newsletters, press releases, LinkedIn updates, conference activities, posters, publications, and podcast episodes, the project has been sharing not only results, but also the thinking behind them. This is important to us because responsible innovation is much more than just about producing tools. It is also (maybe even mostly) about explaining what those tools are, what they can and cannot do, and why their development needs to be guided by clinical realities, ethical principles, and lived experience.
The PREPARE-REHAB podcast has been one example of this shift. Across its episodes, the series has opened up conversations about AI in rehabilitation, ethics, the so-called AI black box, and specific clinical contexts such as Parkinson’s disease. These conversations help make complex topics more approachable. They also remind us that behind every technical system there are people: clinicians making decisions, researchers building models, patients navigating care, and communities asking very reasonable questions about what AI-supported healthcare should look like.
And yes, we have also learned that explaining AI clearly is a skill in itself. Preferably one that does not require three diagrams, five definitions, and a small emotional support coffee. But that is precisely why communication is so central to the project. If AI-supported tools are going to be used responsibly in rehabilitation, then people need to understand them. Not vaguely. Not only in buzzwords. Properly.
At the same time, PREPARE-REHAB has continued to strengthen its scientific and clinical contribution. Recent project outputs have explored rehabilitation data across European datasets, disability trajectories in Parkinson’s disease, the role of wearable sensors, and the possibilities of predictive intelligence in rehabilitation. Events such as OHDSI Europe have also shown how important it is to connect PREPARE-REHAB’s work with wider research communities working on real-world evidence, data standards, and health informatics.
This is one of the project’s key achievements so far: it has not treated AI as an isolated technical object. Instead, PREPARE-REHAB has approached AI as part of a wider healthcare ecosystem. That means asking how data are collected, how models are built, how clinical decision support tools may be used, how professionals can be supported, how patients can remain central, and how ethical and legal questions must shape the path forward.
As we move towards the final stretch, however, there is still important work ahead.
The coming months will focus on translating project knowledge into materials, activities, and resources that can support future use. Training materials are a major part of this next phase. These will help explain the PREPARE tool, clinical prediction models, decision-support systems, basic statistics, ethical and legal aspects, technical background, and the practical integration of the tool into shared decision-making processes. The aim is to provide information, of course, but also to support understanding, engagemente, confidence, and thoughtful use.
Webinars are also on the horizon. These will offer opportunities to bring together clinicians, experts, patients, partners, and wider audiences to discuss the experiences emerging from the pilot cases, the use of AI in medical settings, clinical reasoning with decision-support tools, and possible connections with other European projects. In other words, the conversation is not over. It is entering a new, more outward-facing stage.
There are also further events, newsletters, videos, dissemination materials, and project updates to come. These will help ensure that the knowledge generated by PREPARE-REHAB does not stay neatly tucked away inside deliverables, which would be very tidy but not terribly useful. Instead, the goal is to keep making the work visible, accessible, and usable for the communities that can benefit from it.
Looking back, PREPARE-REHAB has already come a long way. It has built collaborations across countries and disciplines. It has supported research into personalised rehabilitation and AI-supported clinical decision-making. It has opened conversations about trust, transparency, data, ethics, and patient-centred innovation. It has created public-facing materials, strengthened its online presence, and shared project knowledge through multiple formats.
Looking forward, the challenge is to bring all of this together.
The final phase is also about finishing tasks, but it is mostly about consolidation. It is about making sure that the work done so far can travel beyond the project itself. It is about supporting clinicians, researchers, patients, and stakeholders in understanding what PREPARE-REHAB has developed, what has been learned, and what possibilities remain.
So yes, the suitcase is full. But it is full because the journey has been productive.
Now comes the task of organising, sharing, discussing, testing, refining, and making sure that what has been built can continue to matter beyond the life of the project.
And that is exactly where PREPARE-REHAB is heading next.
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Posted by Nayara Güércio (Trilateral Research)