How technology is put into practice
Using real-world examples, a panel comprising industry representatives and healthcare professionals from clinics demonstrated at DMEA how technical solutions are finding their way into healthcare.
Image: Messe Berlin
For many healthcare professionals, documentation is one of the less popular tasks. Whilst AI applications have already become part of everyday private life, they are still viewed critically in healthcare. With the support of Meierhofer AG, Greifswald University Hospital has introduced AI-supported documentation as a proof of concept. It generates a ‘Medical Summary’ from existing information on medical history. However, the tool can also draft doctors’ letters based on the available documents.
Eva Bittner, project manager at Meierhofer AG, and Elizaveta Beeck, medical processes consultant at Asklepios Service IT, highlighted the legal and technical framework that must be considered before implementing AI applications in hospitals. At the same time, they emphasised the need to examine the actual processes in place to understand how work is carried out. Ultimately, humans remain the final authority when it comes to making medical decisions.
Getting people on board
For Lina Ziwes, project manager at eHealth.Business GmbH, and Dr Christian Schöps, Team Lead for the Digital Hospital at Hamburg’s Albertinen Hospital, digital transformation is also a cultural issue. It is about understanding processes, empowering people, supporting them and embedding technologies. Whilst they may well be tech-savvy in their private lives, they are often overwhelmed in their professional lives. Change is perceived as uncertainty. This makes it all the more important to first scrutinise processes before digitising them, in order to create tangible added value. To introduce staff to new solutions, the ‘Digitalisation Message’ learning platform has been developed. It offers ‘learning journeys’ across various specialist areas. Those who successfully complete them receive a certificate. After all, transformation ultimately begins in the mind and with each individual.
Into the future via VR glasses
Aleksi Komu and Andreas Fischer from ThingLink are also focused on communicating new technologies. In their keynote on “Context-Aware Spatial Learning in Healthcare”, they presented their technology, which allows complex medical devices to be explained using VR glasses. The tool can be easily programmed using a mobile phone and customised with your own instructions. Instead of confusing manuals, staff receive a practical explanation. Clients such as the NHS have been able to significantly reduce training costs using the tool.
The non-profit association Human IQ focuses on patients. It brings senior citizens together with students so that they can jointly develop digital care applications (DiPas). Like Dirk Schommertz, head of the Human IQ Academy, the aim is to help those affected support the applications through clear UX design. The project is supported by geragogues from the University of Hamburg who specialise in learning in later life. The association is currently seeking partners to help scale up its idea.