A delegation from the CAU and UKSH joined Schleswig-Holstein's Minister President Daniel Günther in opening the new infrastructure for AI in the USA in the night of 8 June 2023 (German time). "Today we mark the start of a new bridge between our regions with this joint project. UCSF and the CAU are known for outstanding medical research. And both are leaders in the use of artificial intelligence in medicine. When they combine their know-how, great opportunities arise. This benefits our universities, our health economy and of course, above all, the patients, who receive the best possible care," Günther said at the opening in San Francisco.
CAU President Prof. Dr Simone Fulda was broadcast live from Kiel during the night and reaffirmed the CAU's commitment to this cooperation: "With this cooperation, the CAU can further strengthen its role as a central and internationally networked scientific player in Schleswig-Holstein. And this project in particular impressively demonstrates the added value of international collaboration for the use of data-driven AI technologies in medicine," said Fulda.
Prof. Dr Joachim Thiery, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Board Member for Research and Teaching at the UKSH, Campus Kiel, said: "We regard today's launch of the information superhighway between the UKSH and the Faculty of Medicine with UCSF's computer science expertise as a groundbreaking start to closer scientific collaboration with the Bay Area. Together, we want to sustainably use the possibilities of artificial intelligence in medicine for the clinical benefit of the population of both university medical locations."
Prof. Dr Dr h.c. mult. Jens Scholz, CEO of the UKSH, added: "In the near future, we will benefit from the exchange of experience with the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco. The further development of this artificial intelligence can revolutionise preventive but also acute treatment and provide our doctors with an enormously important advantage in terms of information."
The "AI Exchange" project between the "Intelligent Imaging Lab" at the CAU and the "Center for Intelligent Imaging" at UCSF uses "federated learning" technology, which protects sensitive data in particular, such as X-ray images. "With this technology, all sensitive medical data remains on site, at the UKSH or at UCSF, so that data protection is guaranteed," says Prof. Dr Claus-Christian Glüer, who is leading the project. Together with Prof. Dr Jan-Bernd Hövener, he set up the Intelligent Imaging Lab and the Section Biomedical Imaging in the Radiology Department. "Instead of sending the data back and forth, we train the networks at each location within the respective firewalls," Hövener elaborated. "After a certain time, we combine the results of the local networks so that we can take advantage of the large amounts of data from both sites and protect our data." This is an important step for imaging in precision medicine, which is a priority research area in North Germany, with the Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI).
The AI networks at both locations will initially be trained independently at each site, "they gain practical experience," is how Hövener describes it. These are sent to a central server at the UKSH and merged, which results in a joint new network that is more experienced than the individual ones. This is then sent back again and again to the local training sites until it is optimally trained. "Because the more data that goes into an AI network, the more accurately and precisely it can later work and help people," said Hövener.
A first application will be predicting hip fractures based on X-ray images. It is not possible for people to accurately predict whether a fracture will occur within the next ten years based on simple images. The AI at the CAU is currently creating a predictive accuracy that is better than that of current medical check-ups. Together with the UCSF data, the success rate is to be further improved. Other projects are also planned for the short and medium term. One example is the automated detection of the cause of strokes in the ER department: is there bleeding that needs to be stopped or does a blocked vein need to be reopened? It is vital for patients to get the right one of these extremely different treatments, urgently. AI can help doctors not to miss anything.
MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
