Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering
Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering

Healthcare – Current projects for research and industry

Platform4Health.Ruhr and Platform4Health.Ruhr 2: Concept Development and Exemplary, Prototype Implementation of a Ruhr Health Platform

In the Platform4Health.Ruhr project, the team is developing a digital platform that aggregates services related to prevention, health promotion and healthcare in the Ruhr region, presents them in an accessible way and tailors them to users’ individual lifestyles. The focus is on conceptual design, proof of concept and prototypical implementation—initially as a pilot for the city of Oberhausen, and in Project 2 also for Gelsenkirchen, Bochum and Duisburg.

Platform4Health.Ruhr and Platform4Health.Ruhr 2: Concept Development and Exemplary, Prototype Implementation of a Ruhr Health Platform
© Image created with GPT Image 1.5; prompt and concept by Maren Keuchel

DISTANCE:PRO – Digital Smart Hub for Advanced Connected Care:Pro(fessional)

The “DISTANCE:PRO – Digital Smart Hub for Advanced Connected Care:Pro(fessional)” project further expands the German health data network. Building on the predecessor project DISTANCE, regional healthcare providers are being integrated into the secure, interoperable research data exchange framework of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII). This allows care data to be aggregated in compliance with data protection regulations and made available for research, AI models, and digital applications. Underlying this is the vision of creating a sustainable ecosystem that enriches patient care throughout the entire treatment pathway (patient journey) with a personalized and, above all, data-driven component. To this end, the existing DISTANCE HUB is to be expanded into a so-called Extended Data Integration Center (XTDIZ – EXTENDED DIZ), which will assume the tasks and services of a DIZ independently of the operator and relieve the local IT resources of healthcare provide.

TrustED - Enabling Trustworthy European Data Spaces through Self-Sovereign Identity and Privacy Preserving Technologies

In the "TrustED" project, we are researching how citizens can manage their digital identity securely, autonomously, and across Europe using an EUDI-compliant wallet (EUDI = European Digital Identity). Using self-sovereign identity, verifiable credentials, and privacy-preserving technologies, we enable trustworthy European data spaces where sensitive information can be shared in a controlled and purpose-limited manner.

BodyTune2Clinic – Handheld system for diagnosis and progress monitoring of carotid stenosis

The BodyTune2Clinic project aims to transfer a handheld auscultation system for supporting medical diagnosis and monitoring the progression of carotid stenosis into clinical use. It is based on the automated analysis of blood flow sounds in the carotid artery, which are recorded using a mobile measuring device and evaluated using AI-supported methods. The focus is on obtaining initial clinical application data and verifying whether individual risk profiles can be derived for the prevention of strokes.

DAVINA: Data-driven individualization of the anesthesia procedure in geriatric traumatology

In the DAVINA project, we aim to develop a pioneering Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that actively supports anesthetists and patients in individual anesthesia planning. The goal is for patients to be able to share their health data via a user-friendly portal, while our virtual contact person “Davina” educates them about different anesthesia procedures and their risks. The CDSS will use medical guidelines and AI-powered analytics to provide precise, evidence-based therapy recommendations. This way, we intend to strengthen patient engagement, increase the quality of therapy planning, and reduce the workload of medical staff.

HealthTrack-X: Digital production and supply chain in the healthcare industry based on the principles of Gaia-X

The joint project “HealthTrack-X” aims to establish an open and decentralized data ecosystem for the healthcare sector. This should make it easier for all stakeholders involved to maintain data sovereignty, thereby creating trust and increasing efficiency. The creation of a digital infrastructure will promote cooperation between the parties involved in order to sustainably improve healthcare in Germany and Europe. The project aims to develop and test concepts and uniform standards that allow physical goods and their routes along the supply chain to be digitally recorded and tracked.

DIM.Ruhr: Data competence center for the interprofessional use of health data in the Ruhr Metropolis

The Data Competence Center DIM.RUHR pools the expertise of the participating research institutions in the Ruhr metropolis and makes the data collected usable for healthcare research. To this end, DIM.RUHR creates teaching, research and networking opportunities to increase the data skills of researchers, but also for healthcare providers.

DuITeasy: Lifelong assistance platform based on an open federated data and services ecosystem and smart metering systems

Europe's ageing population requires new approaches to lifelong assistance. The "DuITeasy" project is developing an interoperable ecosystem for innovative assistance services based on existing data sources with a focus on data protection and interoperability, with the aim of creating broad access to data for innovative business models and competitiveness.

Close-up Of A Person's Hand Using Smart Home Application On Smartphone In Kitchen

TITAN: Trusted envIronments for confidenTiAl computiNg and secure data sharing

The project "TITAN - Trusted envIronments for confidenTiAl computiNg and secure data sharing" will enrich the interoperability framework (IF) of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) with a software platform solution for confidential data collaboration and secure and privacy-preserving data processing. The platform will enable access to sensitive data sets from public institutions and government agencies and will be compatible with the EOSC IF on a technical, semantic, organizational and legal level. To encourage community adoption of TITAN's open source software artifacts, the solution will be demonstrated in practice in several vertical cross-border scenarios - particularly in the public administration and healthcare sectors.

Overall IT strategy: Healtcare Content Management Software (HCMS) for Bochum University Hospital

As one of the largest university hospitals in Germany with eight sponsors and over 600,000 treatments annually, the University Hospital of the Ruhr University Bochum (UK RUB) has enormous potential for data-driven clinical research.

IDERHA: Integration of Heterogeneous Data and Evidence towards Regulatory and HTA Acceptance

IDERHA is a European public-private partnership launched in April 2023. The goal of the project is to conceptually and technically overcome interdisciplinary barriers to accessing, integrating, and analyzing health data to maximize its value for patient care and medical research.

DISTANCE: Digital Smart Hub for Advanced Connected Care

The project "DISTANCE - Digital Smart Hub for Advanced Connected Care" deals with the outpatient follow-up of patients discharged from intensive care treatments for the prevention and therapy support of Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). Affected patients suffer from impairments beyond their intensive care stay, which can lead to a loss of quality of life. The PICOS app (Post Intensive Care Outcome Surveillance app) developed as part of DISTANCE is therefore designed to enable patients to monitor and document their health conditions and actively participate in their recovery process.

TRANSIT – Medical Informatics Structure "Data Management Unit"

Healthcare generates a large amount of data that can be used for research into diseases, drugs and treatment methods. The use of data science and machine learning in particular offers great potential for learning from existing data volumes and optimizing medical processes and treatment methods. In order for this data from different sources to be combined and analyzed, it must have a high level of data quality, interoperability, data protection and security.

A.D.Le.R.: Automated detection, reporting and guidance system for rescue forces

Making an emergency call quickly and successfully is the first step in the rescue chain and therefore essential for saving lives and protecting property. Automatic detection and notification of fires and emergencies could significantly increase the level of safety here. This applies in particular to people with disabilities or older people who may no longer be able to reach for the telephone or rescue themselves from the danger zone in an emergency. The "ADLeR" project therefore aims to provide this target group in particular with greater safety and, at the same time, greater self-determination in everyday life.

ICON: The predictive hospital

The ICON project addresses the questions: Can healthcare data, together with data from other data domains, help optimize processes, predict future disruptions, and simulate the impact of change? If so, this could be another powerful contribution to support healthcare systems facing the same challenges worldwide.

PFLIP: Intersectoral Nursing Core Data Set and Nursing Data Repository

The PFLIP project aims to define the core nursing data set and build an intersectoral nursing data repository. Continuity of care is to be improved across institutions (patient-centeredness vs. organization-centeredness) and the development of care-supporting AI solutions is to be enabled. To this end, care data from inpatient and outpatient settings will be harmonized and made usable.

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HEALTH-X dataLOFT: Legitimate, open and federated health data space in GAIA-X

Healthcare of the future will be based on secure and cross-sector networking and use of data. In addition, personal data from the secondary healthcare market, such as activity data collected by end-consumer devices, is becoming increasingly important. The goal of the "HEALTH-X dataLOFT" project is to place citizens at the center of the provision, use and control of their own health data within the framework of a citizen-centered health data space. The health data will be made accessible according to GAIA-X standards.

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DaRe: Health DAta trust REallaboratory to develop and test ecosystem integration of data-driven health research

In the joint project »DaRe«, a data escrow model for medical data is to be developed using radiology as an example. Radiological data are of particular interest for medical research and the development of medical analysis tools, as they form the basis for AI components of imaging devices. The central aspect of the project is to realize a stronger integration of patients as data providers.

MINDED.RUHR: My INdividual Digital EDucation

MINDED.RUHR focuses on the one hand on the combined provision of educational content from various training providers with the Moodle content of public educational institutions, and on the other hand on the individualized provision of suitable content for different target groups and learning types.

Digital hospital NRW

North Rhine-Westphalia provides services for 4.6 million inpatients and 5 million outpatients at a total of 344 hospitals. Measuring the direct influence of digitization appears difficult. Digitally assisted communication establishes consistency, both in the hospital and with external supporting structures.

DaWID: Data-centered value creation platform for interactive, assisting service systems

Data are considered the raw material of the century. The World Economic Forum designated personal data as a new asset class back in 2012. A shift to digital business models on the basis of data is in demand and already discernible today. The project "DaWID" aims to research and test a data-centered value creation platform for the transparent and sovereign administration of their own data by users.

Digital life journey: A self-determined life for citizens in an increasingly digitized world

The digital life journey describes us from our birth to our death. This leads to the following question: Would it be possible to describe the individual citizen in their entirety by combining all their data – the "digital me" so to speak? This digital life journey shows how each person can regain sovereignty over their data, and how society, technology, ethics, law, and economics have to work together.

eDem-CONNECT: Development of a communication and service platform for peo-ple caring for family members with dementia

In the project "eDEM-Connect", we are researching how people caring for family members suffering from dementia, who are confronted with agitation, can be supported by technical solutions. The three-year project aims to establish and deliver a chatbot-based communication and service platform.

MOND: Mobile, smart neurosensor system for the detection and documentation of epileptic seizures in everyday life

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases worldwide. Its characteristic symptom is recurrent epileptic seizures, which are very stressful for those affected. Recognizing and documenting epileptic seizures in everyday life is essential for individual therapy.

SMITH: Smart Medical Information Technology for Healthcare

The demand for efficient development of new treatment methods, pharmaceuticals and technologies in medicine is greater than ever. Data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence are opening up new opportunities for medical research based on healthcare data.

In the project "ViCon - Virtual Consent Assistant", Fraunhofer ISST is researching new human-technology dialogs. In this context, a virtual Consent Assistant is to support informed consents for the processing of patient-related data. Often, the informedness of patients is simply assumed.

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