Publications

Dr. Philippe Mortier presented the PERMANENS project at the 21st European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour (ESSSB21), held in Vilnius, Lithuania. The symposium brought together researchers, clinicians and professionals from across Europe and beyond to share the latest advances in suicide research and prevention.

During the conference, Dr. Mortier presented PERMANENS-AID, the clinical decision support system developed within the PERMANENS project to support healthcare professionals in the assessment and management of people presenting with self-harm in emergency departments.

PERMANENS-AID combines machine-learning-based risk stratification, an evidence-based guided care pathway, and supporting training resources. The aim is not to replace clinical judgement, but to complement it by providing healthcare professionals with additional information and structured support to help them deliver more consistent and person-centred care.

The development of PERMANENS-AID has involved both healthcare professionals and people with lived experience of self-harm. Their perspectives have played an important role in shaping the tool and ensuring that its development responds to the needs and realities of those who may use and benefit from it.

The presentation generated considerable interest among ESSSB21 attendees, leading to thoughtful questions, discussions and valuable feedback on the tool. These exchanges are particularly important as the PERMANENS team continues to refine PERMANENS-AID and considers the next steps towards its larger-scale evaluation and potential implementation in clinical practice.

The PERMANENS team would like to thank all the project’s collaborators and partners for their contributions to the development of the tool, as well as the ESSSB21 organisers for bringing together an inspiring community committed to advancing suicide research and prevention.

Last week, February 3–4 in Paris, we had the honor of presenting PERMANENS at the ERA PerMed JTC2022 Midterm Seminar, during the session on Neuropsychiatric Challenges. Philippe Mortier shared the latest progress of the project, coordinated by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute.

PERMANENS (Towards Personalised Clinical Management of Suicide Risk through Data-Driven Clinical Decision Support using Transnational Electronic Registry Data) aims to develop a ready-to-implement clinical decision support system (CDSS) to assist emergency care teams in managing self-harm in a personalized and safe way.

At midterm, we highlighted several achievements:

• A fully functioning CDSS prototype (TRL6)

• Privacy-preserving federated models developed across European countries using the OMOP Common Data Model

• Robust prediction models for 3-month and 12-month self-harm repetition, and 1-year suicide risk

• A systematic review of clinical practice guidelines

• A CDSS front-end adapted based on feedback from clinicians, experts, and patients

PERMANENS is not about replacing clinicians or “predicting suicide” in isolation. Its goal is to support structured, compassionate, and personalized clinical decision-making at critical points of care.

The seminar was an excellent opportunity to discuss innovation, ethics, and sustainability in personalized medicine. We are grateful to UiO, University College Cork, NSRF, Karolinska Institutet, and UPF Barcelona, as well as to ERA PerMed / EP PerMed for providing this platform.

As part of the PERMANENS project, we recently conducted our third User Advisory Group (UAG) to gather feedback from people with lived experience and mental health professionals on our new Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) prototype. This tool is designed to support healthcare professionals in assessing and managing patients presenting with self-harm in emergency departments by summarizing key risk factors and suggesting evidence-based, personalized care plans.

The insights collected during this UAG are invaluable for refining the prototype to ensure it meets the needs of both clinicians and patients. Key findings from Sweden, Ireland, and Spain highlight what features are considered essential for practical use in clinical settings. Full reports are available in English (Lived Experience and Medical Health Professionals), Spanish, and Catalan.

On June 11, the PERMANENS team took center stage at the 33rd World Congress organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in Vienna, Austria. The team presented the PERMANENS project alongside its prototype Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), designed to support healthcare professionals in self-harm assessments.

The workshop brought together experts and practitioners in dynamic discussion groups, exploring the challenges of implementing CDSS in Emergency Departments, its acceptability and feasibility, and the essential requirements for successful integration and evaluation. The session fostered rich exchanges of ideas, highlighting both opportunities and practical considerations for advancing on the application of these tools in suicide prevention.

You can explore the key insights and discussions from the workshop here.

The PERMANENS project aims to develop a prototype for a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) designed to assist healthcare professionals in the assessment and care of patients presenting with self-harm in the emergency department. The CDSS will provide a summary of the most critical risk factors and propose an evidence-based treatment plan, tailored to each patient’s individual risk profile.

To ensure that the tool meets the needs of end users, the project conducts User Advisory Groups (UAGs) as part of its research using mixed-methods approaches. These groups actively involve people with lived experience and healthcare professionals, whose insights are essential to the development process.

In this second UAG, we explored which aspects of a CDSS for risk stratification were considered essential for mental health professionals and people with lived experience to be useful in clinical practice. This post presents summaries of the key findings from Sweden, Ireland, and Spain. The full reports are available in Spanish, Catalan, and English.

The PERMANENS project aims to develop a prototype for a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) designed to assist healthcare professionals in the assessment and care of patients presenting with self-harm in the emergency department. The CDSS will provide a summary of the most critical risk factors and propose an evidence-based treatment plan, tailored to each patient’s individual risk profile.

To ensure that the tool meets the needs of end users, the project conducts User Advisory Groups (UAGs) as part of its research using mixed-methods approaches. These groups actively involve people with lived experience and healthcare professionals, whose insights are essential to the development process.

In this first UAG, we explored the perspectives of people with lived experience and mental health professionals on suicide risk assessment in the emergency department. This post presents summaries of the key findings from Sweden, Ireland, and Spain. You can access the full reports in Spanish, Catalan, and English.

Philippe Mortier, Franco Amigo, Madhav Bhargav, Susana Conde, Montse Ferrer, Oskar Flygare, Busenur Kizilaslan, Laura Latorre Moreno, Angela Leis, Miguel Angel Mayer, Víctor Pérez-Sola, Ana Portillo-Van Diest, Juan Manuel Ramírez-Anguita, Ferran Sanz, Gemma Vilagut, Jordi Alonso, Lars Mehlum, Ella Arensman, Johan Bjureberg, Manuel Pastor & Ping Qin

Philippe Mortier

Philippe Mortier