Following the successful establishment of the highly innovative ‘photon counting’ computed tomography technology (PC-CT) at three clinical sites in the previous PC3 project (see sidebar), the ‘teamplay digital health platform connect’ (tdhp) developed by partner Siemens Healthineers will digitally connect the university hospitals in Freiburg, Tübingen, Mannheim and Ulm with each other. The tdhp primarily enables the exchange of photon counting CT image data, which has a significantly higher resolution and is more comprehensive than normal CT technology.

The project is being funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism as part of the third funding round of the Forum Health Region Baden-Württemberg. It is again being supported by the Baden-Württemberg state agency BIOPRO in the area of economic connectivity. In a later project phase, the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart and the Karlsruhe Municipal Hospital are also to be connected to tdhp.

The tdhp image data infrastructure not only networks clinical sites

tdhp is designed as a ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS) offering to enable the connection of a wide range of participants in the healthcare sector. This opens up new avenues for cross-institutional cooperation, including the connection of the electronic health record system (eGA) of health insurance providers and value-added services that offer treatment support or appointment management systems, for example. In addition, the type of clinical image data is not limited to photon counting CT image information, but is to be expanded to include other modern imaging data, such as multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging. The use of tdhp has already been successfully tested at Mannheim University Hospital in a special real-world laboratory, the ‘INSPIRE Living Lab’. Now, as part of PC3-AIDA, the utilisation is to be established and further developed at several locations.

In addition to its networking function, tdhp also offers a suitable basis for integrating a wide range of artificial intelligence (AI) and thus facilitates cooperation with other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in the medical software and medical technology sector. The AI research platform NORA developed in Freiburg will be integrated into tdhp during the initial phase of PC3-AIDA. NORA is able to make diagnoses based on multimodal data, such as MRI image data and blood values, and thus provide considerable support to clinical staff.

In order to demonstrate the translational potential of this digital ecosystem, the Centres for Personalised Medicine (ZPM) are to be supplied with the AI-generated results of image data analysis. The centres have set themselves the goal of increasing personalisation in the treatment of patients by strengthening the network of corresponding experts from a wide range of disciplines.

In addition, the project aims to work closely with the central infrastructure project Multicloud (MEDI:CUS), which was also funded in the third funding round of the Forum Health Region Baden-Württemberg, in order to ensure compatibility between the two systems and to serve as a practical application example in the design of the multicloud. The multicloud is intended to promote the digital use of healthcare data for the benefit of patients and employees through the data protection-compliant connection of stakeholders from healthcare, research, teaching and industry, thereby further improving healthcare, research and teaching in Baden-Württemberg.

The synergy with the multicloud, which acts as a data and exchange platform, and the Centres for Personalised Medicine, which act as bundling points for interdisciplinary expertise, should enable the full potential of the PC3-AIDA project to be exploited.

Ensuring the economic connectivity

BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg will use its expertise in the healthcare industry, in the further development of Baden-Württemberg as a location, in the initiation and support of collaborations and in expert public relations work to support the cross-institutional and cross-sector transfer of project results. To this end, a public relations campaign in 2023 and 2024 will increase the visibility of the project and share the latest findings via web portals, newsletters and the trade press. Furthermore, industry workshops organised and moderated by BIOPRO will ensure translation between the consortium partners, university medical partners, non-university research institutes and industry. Further product scenarios are developed in these workshops in order to facilitate networking and cooperation with SMEs and start-ups. In Baden-Württemberg, a comprehensive value chain is being created that converts medical data into products and secures the global competitive advantage - in the interests of patients and the economy.