CaregiverMatcher: graph neural networks for connecting caregivers of rare disease patients

Filippo Guerranti, Mirco Mannino, Federica Baccini, Pietro Bongini, Niccolò Pancino, Anna Visibelli, Sara Marziali

Abstract: Rare diseases affect a growing number of individuals. One key problem for patients and their caregivers is the difficulty in reaching experts and associations competent on a particular disease. As a consequence, caregivers, often family members of the patient, learn much about the disease from their own experience. CaregiverMatcher is a proof of concept providing a smart solution to build a network of caregivers, linked by a matching mechanism based on graph neural networks. The caregivers and their experience with rare diseases are described by node features. Associations and care centers are invited to share their knowledge on the platform.