Our Projects

Care for Sustainable Innovation | CSI 

Digitale und nachhaltige Innovationen in der Gesundheitswirtschaft

Das Projekt Care for Sustainable Innovation treibt die digitale und nachhaltige Transformation der Gesundheitswirtschaft in der Region Aachen voran. Wir bauen gemeinsam mit Hochschulen, Unternehmen und Startups ein Innovationsökosystem für kreative Köpfe. Durch die systematische Vernetzung der Forschungs- und Entwicklungskompetenzen von Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Praxis wird die Region zu einem dynamischen Experimentierraum, in dem Ideen entwickelt, getestet und skaliert werden - bis aus Innovationen marktfähige Geschäftsmodelle werden. 

Besonders im Fokus: Cross-Innovationen – hier entstehen Synergien und neue Ideen für innovative Lösungen an den Schnittstellen von Branchen. 

Unsere Innovationstreiber: 

• Cross-Innovation-Werkstätten –  Wir bringen Menschen mit Expertise aus Gesundheitswirtschaft und Life Science, Kreislaufwirtschaft, Bioökonomie, vernetzter Mobilität, IT-Branche, Energiewirtschaft und innovativem Bauen zusammen. In unseren transdisziplinären Werkstätten entwickeln sie gemeinsam Ideen für Innovationen und Kooperationen. 
   
• Innovationspartnerschaften – Wir begleiten Partnerschaften von Anwenderinnen und Anwendern aus der Gesundheitswirtschaft, Entwicklerinnen und Entwickler und Herstellerinnen und Hersteller von Medizin- und Nachhaltigkeitsprodukten, Software- und Netzwerktechnologien, Hochschulen und Organisationen bei der Entwicklung von Produkten und Dienstleistungen mit Coaching und Workshops. 
   
• Innovative Projekte für die digitale Gesundheitsversorgung -  Mit der Entwicklung der Smart Care + More – Plattform, dem Ausbau der digitalen Medizin sowie innovativen kommunalenZukunftsprojekten verbessern wir die Gesundheitsversorgung mit Innovationen aus der Region für die Region.
   
• Governance-Strukturen – Wir entwickeln regionale Strukturen, um Innovationen auch in Zukunft systematisch in der Gesundheitswirtschaft zu verankern. 
   

Cross-Innovation for the next Generation –  Unsere Routen der Innovation, Innovationskonferenzen, Cross-Ideation-Workshops und Summerschools begeistern Beschäftigte der Gesundheitswirtschaft, Studierende, Menschen aus Unternehmen, Politik, Verwaltung und Wissenschaft für den digitalen und nachhaltigen Wandel mit Innovationen aus der Region.

Das Innovationsprojekt Care for Sustainable Innovation wird im Rahmen des Förderaufrufes Regio.NRW – Transformation aus Mitteln des Europäischen Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE) und des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen gefördert und baut auf den Ergebnissen des EFRE-Projektes Care and Mobility Innovation auf. 

Kontaktperson
Helen Heinrichs
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des Innovationszentrums Digitale Medizin 
hheinrichsukaachende
Tel.: 0241 80-87066

Digital Skills 4 Healthcare

DS4Health is a world-leading, multi-site Master's programme (Digital Skills 4 Healthcare Transformation M.Sc. Applied Health Informatics and digital Transformation) specializing in the digitalization of healthcare. DS4Health is a focal point for the joint creation of a digital health ecosystem that enables the exchange of new knowledge, opportunities, collaborations, partnerships and new alliances in the world of digital health.

DISTANCE - Digital Smart hub for Advanced Connected care

DISTANCE is one of the six Digital Health Innovation Hubs of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to be launched in mid-2021. The task of the progress hubs is to incorporate the pioneering work of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) on digitalization in medicine from university hospitals into all areas of the healthcare system. The aim of DISTANCE is to connect university institutions more closely with general and primary care hospitals as well as registered medical professionals for crosssector, interoperable data exchange between non-university medical institutions. The digital infrastructure for this will be created over a period of four years. As a clinical Use Case, an app (PICOS app) will be developed as part of DISTANCE to provide patients with an individual evaluation of their personal state of health and regular medical self-care in everyday life after a long stay in an intensive care unit. 

https://www.smith.care/de/distance 

EDITH - Ecosystem for digital Twins in Healthcare.

The focus of EDITH is on proposing how a fully integrated VHT can be developed, starting from digital twins of individual organs.

 https://www.edith-csa.eu/ 

EUCAIM - European Cancer Imaging

The aim of the European Cancer Imaging Initiative is to promote innovation and the use of digital technologies in cancer treatment and healthcare in order to achieve more accurate and faster clinical decision-making, diagnostics, treatment and predictive medicine for cancer patients. The initiative will demonstrate how medical images can be accessed, used and pooled while ensuring a high level of ethics, trust, security and protection of personal data in full compliance with EU values and rules. This will make large volumes of cancer images and linked clinical data easily accessible to European clinicians, researchers and innovators in line with the European Data Strategy and in support of the objectives of the European Health Data Space. 

https://eucanimage.eu/ 

GDI - Genomic Data Infrastructure

Launched at the end of November 2022, the Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project brings together national authorities, research organizations and technology providers in 22 countries to create a cross-border network of national genome collections linked to other relevant data. The network will not only drive data-driven biomedical research and personalized medicine solutions for the benefit of European citizens but also support the European 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative. Specifically, GDI will promote the development, establishment and operation of sustainable data access infrastructures in each participating country, including legal frameworks, operational procedures and ethical principles. The project will unlock a data network of over 1 million genome sequences for research and clinical purposes, creating unprecedented opportunities for routine cross-border multi-stakeholder interventions in the field of personalized medicine for common, rare and infectious diseases. Authorized data users such as clinicians, researchers and innovators will be able to drive more accurate and faster clinical decisions, diagnoses, treatments and improved public health interventions.  

https://gdi.onemilliongenomes.eu/ 

ICUdata4EU
ICUdata4EU is a pioneering project funded by the European Union to improve critical care through innovative data solutions. Using data interoperability, artificial intelligence and cross-border collaboration, the project delivers actionable insights to healthcare providers to optimize patient outcomes across Europe. A key component is the establishment of a unified framework for collecting, sharing and analyzing data from intensive care units. This approach will close existing gaps in healthcare systems, support real-time decision making, optimize resource allocation and promote advances in critical care research. ICUdata4EU is funded under the Digital Europe (DIGITAL) program (Grant Agreement No. 101168169) and aims to transform critical care in a sustainable way over the next 3.5 years. By standardizing the use of patient data across borders for critically ill people and building a robust data infrastructure, the project will help improve clinical decision-making, enable personalized care and drive innovation in predictive healthcare - with the aim of fundamentally redefining critical care in Europe. 

www.icudata4.eu 

SMITH – Smart medical information technology for healthcare.

The SMITH consortium -Smart Medical Information Technology for Healthcare -develops innovative IT solutions to improve medical care for patients. For this purpose, nine university medical centers of SMITH bundle medical informatics, clinical, systems medicine, computer linguistic and epidemiological expertise. In close cooperation with two non-university research institutions and four industry partners, an infrastructure for the interoperable use of data from patient care and patient-oriented research is being developed across the limits of institutions and locations. A service platform will enable the joint use of the results, also for other networking partners.
 

https://www.smith.care/ 

Care + Mobility -Living well cared for and intelligent mobility in the region of Aachen

Project description

The “Care and Mobility Innovation -Living well cared for and intelligent mobility in the future” project aimed to develop and implement a regional innovation strategy to combine the areas of intelligent mobility and the digital healthcare industry. Suitable framework conditions were created within the project and successful projects and concepts were implemented in the region. By initiating innovation networks, practical projects were quickly implemented, and research projects were promoted by bringing thetwo sectors together as cross-innovation.

The strengths and challenges along the value chain were systematically identified and a regional roadmap for growth was drawnup. In addition, digital platforms in the field of mobility and the “Healthcare industry young and digital” initiative for professionals were utilized.Joint research projects were developed and implemented through innovation partnerships. The “Care and Mobility Innovation -good care and intelligent mobility in the future” project has successfully combined the potential of intelligent mobility and the digital healthcare industry in the region and created an innovative approach for the future.
 

https://careandmobility.de/ 

Smart4Health – Citizen-centric EU-EPA exchange for personalized healthcare

Launched in early 2019, the EU Smart4Health project aims to develop and test an EU-wide electronic patient record. Under the leadership of the project coordinator UNINOVA and other partners from science and industry, a cloud-based prototype for the electronic exchange of patient data is being created. The project is primarily aimed at citizen-oriented and interoperable data exchange and empowerment. Smart4Health enables the population to view and manage their own health data across the EU, thus strengthening their own and social health awareness in a digital way. RWTH Aachen University Hospital is the practice partnerinthe Smart4Health consortium for the exchange of medical data and coordinates eight Citizen Use Cases.
 

https://smart4health.eu/ 

PfleKoRo - Simplifying care through cooperating robotics

Project description

The PfleKoRoproject -Simplifying care through cooperative robotics -aims to identify ways in which care professionals (PFP) can be supported by robotic assistance systems in everyday, physically demanding tasks. One example is lifting and holding the extremities of patients with restricted or immobile limbs. The time resources thereby freed up (time relief, improvement in thecaregiver/patient relationship) can be used by caregivers to respond individually to the needs and wishes of those in need ofcare and thus better meet the demand for “quality care”. To achieve this, a robotic system is to be designed that supports care in line with requirements, integrates itself seamlessly into care activities and takes over physically demanding holding and repositioning tasks.
 

https://www.pflege-und-robotik.de/pflekoro/ 

eCare - Digital solutions for frailty prevention in old adults

Due to demographic change, frailty in older adults will represent an increasing challenge for future care structures. Frailtycan affect older people at all levels of functioning (physical, mental and social) and consequently lead to an increase in the need for help and social isolation. eCareis an EU-funded PCP project that aims to develop market-ready, digital solutions for the prevention and holistic management of frailty. By using a holistic treatment approach, emerging symptoms and impairments of frailty will be recognized and treated earlier to prevent the resulting increase in disease severity, increased impairment atthe level of activities of daily living (ADLs) and the associated demand of health-related services. eCareis intended to contribute to maintaining a high quality of care for older people, which goes beyond the current standard care in the healthcare system andforms the basis for evidence-based, holistic health management.

https://ecare-pcp.eu/