Stakeholder Workshop: “Bringing AI and Robotics to the Hospital”
24 November 2022, Eindhoven
Text by:
Innovation in Health (Health Innovation Hub & Holding GmbH)
On 24 November 2022, a one-day workshop took place at Philips´ premises in Eindhoven (the Netherlands).
Aims of the workshop
The aims of the meeting included
- learning how external institutions receive the innovations,
- discuss about potential measures that could support the adoption of the technologies by players outside of the project consortium and
- exchanging lessons learned during the development of AI and Robotics solutions.
The partners presented the digital technologies being developed in the frame of the Horizon 2020 project to a select group of external stakeholders.
The expert panel
The expert panel was comprised of eight representatives from hospitals, a health agency, industry and academia across Europe:
- Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
- Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria de Sanitat Universal i Salut Pública, Spain
- Haapsalu Neurorehabilitation Center, Estonia
- Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands
- NanoFlex Robotics AG, Switzerland
- Neo Hospital in Cracow, Poland
- Siemens Healthineers, Germany
- SmartHospital.NRW, Germany
The HosmartAI solutions
The first of 12 presentations focused on the common open Integration Platform that will not only facilitate the implementation of digital technologies in the healthcare system. It will also serve as a forum where the different stakeholders can learn or inform about specific needs in the healthcare sector, motivating the development of solutions in direct collaboration with end-users.
Later, the project partners presented the AI and Robotics solutions they are testing in the framework of eight pilots. Tools and datasets used in these projects will be made available in the HosmartAI platform to technology developers, research/academia, and healthcare facilities. Users will be able to utilize them for further development or adaptation, for research purposes and for deployment.
The morning session of the workshop concluded with presentations of three solutions developed by SMEs that were financed via the first of two Open Calls. These solutions solve specific challenges in the Healthcare sector with AI solutions to be integrated into the HosmartAI platform.
HosmartAI solutions presented during the workshop:
- HosmartAI Platform
- Pilot #1 : Supporting and optimizing clinical decision making
- Pilot #2 : Optimizing radiotherapy outcomes by tackling Multi-Appointment Scheduling Problems in Hospitals
- Pilot #3 : Improving treatment with innovative technologies and robotics in the rehabilitation process
- Pilot #4 : Mapping and ablation of cardiac arrhythmias with Robotic Navigation
- Pilot #5 : Robotic Nurse for Assistive Care in Hospitals
- Pilot #6 : Virtual Assistant for a continuity of care in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and Elderly Care
- Pilot #7 : Smart Cathlab Assistance: AI-based automatic X-ray image analysis to support clinical decision and facilitate reporting during cardiac procedures
- Pilot #8 : Prognosis of cancer patients and their response to treatment combining multi-omics data
- EMMA Emergency Clinical Support – VIDAVO S.A.
- FHIR De-Identification and Pseudonymization Tool – Docunque SRL
- SmartMap SNOMED – Medicalvalues GmbH
Follow this link to view all presentations here.
Find more information about the HosmartAI solutions here.
Discussion
The presentations were followed by face-to-face conversations between the experts and representatives of the different innovations.
Interoperability
The experts recognized the potential in the presented solutions. As an example, the HosmartAI platform was found to be interesting for research purposes not only at academic entities but also at clinics. Meanwhile, experts from industry were enthusiastic not only about the concept of developing AI solutions while promoting interoperability through standards, but also about the matchmaking feature and the HosmartAI platform´s marketplace as channel for commercialization.
Living lab
The fact that all pilots are being co-created in living labs involving the different stakeholders was praised as one of the most valuable features of the HosmartAI approach. The experts found the active participation of doctors in the design of the solutions especially interesting and key to success. This helps promote the acceptance of AI innovations in healthcare, which is still low although gradually growing.
Regulatory challenges
While solutions involving robots were found to be more troublesome to be adopted by external institutions due to regulatory challenges, AI technologies could be transferred more easily. In fact, one of the invited hospital representatives offered to test one of the HosmartAI pilots at their own facilities.
Conclusion and outlook
Project partners and external stakeholders as representatives of potential users were brought together and discussed the project progress and possible future directions. The workshop served as a space to engage end-users in the discussion about possible business strategies.
The HosmartAI technologies will continue to be developed and tested for approximately another year until the next external stakeholder workshop, where not only market strategies but also demos of the different solutions are expected to be available.
All in all, the workshop was a success, as it created a win-win situation where innovators received valuable feedback from experts while these learned about AI and Robotics technologies they could benefit from as potential end-users.
