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New AI lab for the healthcare sector
Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important role in healthcare and nursing in the future. In order to enable start-ups, companies and service providers to test new applications, a real laboratory funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg has opened in Karlsruhe. The Robert Bosch Medical Research (RBMF) is involved as a project partner.
Opening of the real lab for artificial intelligence in Karlsruhe with Baden Württemberg's Minister of Health Manfred Lucha and the robot Hollie.
There are many ideas on how artificial intelligence can relieve medical and nursing staff and support them in diagnosis, therapy selection and documentation. Thanks to the newly created “Real Laboratory for the Transfer of Digital Health and AI into the Health System” (ROUTINE), there is now an opportunity for the first time in Baden-Württemberg to test AI-supported methods in a safe setting. The AI lab, located at the FZI Research Centre for Information Technology in Karlsruhe, supports start-ups and companies with technical expertise in research with real health data up to approval studies and accompanies them in the transfer of digital health applications to the healthcare sector.
Overcoming obstacles in the transfer to practice
One of the focal points of the laboratory is to identify and overcome obstacles in the transfer from research to practice. To this end, it can draw from findings from acceptance research as well as translation and implementation. Associated partners from patient advocacy group, authorities, health insurance companies and other institutions are involved in a participatory process.
“We are primarily interested in improving care across sector boundaries using digital data.”
The Robert Bosch Medical Research (RBMF), in which the research activities of the Bosch Health Campus are bundled, is part of the laboratory’s project consortium. “We are primarily interested in improving care across sector boundaries using digital data. This means, for example, that patients coming out of rehab can continue to receive optimal medical care at home”, explains Dr. Helia Schönthaler, Chief Operation Officer of RBMF.
The real laboratory will be funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg with around 2.3 million Euro until the end of 2024 and has already gained attention at federal and EU level. There it is seen as a kind of blueprint for other federal states and member states. The project consortium is made up of leading organisations from research, supply, industry and the start-up scene in Baden-Württemberg.
Participants from research and practice
In addition to the RBMF, these include Philips GmbH with its medical technology division in Böblingen, Diakonie Baden as one of the umbrella organisations of the voluntary welfare sector, the Coordination Office for Telemedicine Baden-Württemberg at Heidelberg University, the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute (NMI) at the University of Tübingen, as well as the start-ups corvolution GmbH and movisens GmbH, which are already using AI-based algorithms and can contribute the experience they have gained.