In another symposium on November 15 in the afternoon, there will be a discussion about therapy plans based on artificial intelligence (AI). Alfa AI, for example, uses AI to create a therapy plan. The inherent intuitive application follows patients throughout the entire process, offers transparency as well as the prescribed training plan, including video sessions. This way, Alfa AI brings together medical knowledge, long-term experience with sports and fitness, insights about proper nutrition and state-of-the-art technology.

There are, however, doubts concerning "check list medicine". According to Prof. Felix Hoffman, these are more a matter of the proper mindset. "How do I approach treatment?", "When is a customized form of treatment really necessary?", and "When can treatments be standardized and carried out following previously defined paths?" are important questions in this context. Prof. Hoffmann is a trauma surgeon, holds a chair at the Apollon University and is head of the staff unit for medical process development at the Klinikum Darmstadt hospital complex. For him, it is a given that digitalization alone does not improve processes. The processes themselves also need improving. As a bad example, he cites the electronic prescription, which would in theory be unnecessary if medications could be accessed directly, without going through a pharmacy. The pharmacists, however, probably does not agree.


How medical networking can help save energy

Improving processes in health care could also help fight climate change – for example through beneficial use of information technology. "How can Healthcare become more sustainable with digital help? " is a question that Armin de Greiff, technical director at the university hospital in Essen, will ask during the expert panel at the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM on November 16, which is completely dedicated to the issue of "Green Health & Sustainability". "You cannot quite align furthering modern data-driven medicine with saving energy", says de Greiff. However, he emphasizes that using medical networking does save energy, for example by helping to avoid repeat examinations. Images and findings should not be printed, faxed, sent by mail and above all not be transported by taxi. Rather, it should be possible to access them anywhere, at any time.

Armin de Greiff further describes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the generation of "virtual contrasts". With appropriate training, networks are said to be able to predict different contrasts from simple data sets and thus save on time intensive examinations. AI could also help to reduce or eliminate the need for contrast agents during CT examinations. Saving on examination time while reducing radiation and contrast agents could be viewed from a sustainable perspective. On the other hand, this also means, according to de Greiff, that the persistent wish for the newest end user devices contradicts sustainability. He explains in this context that the ever shortening product cycles serve to improve performance more than to reduce energy consumption and warns: "We are facing a paradigm shift." With this, de Greiff calls attention to the fact that a higher energy consumption in data centers is not necessarily the same as overall higher consumption of energy. Virtualization of the workplace, e.g. through mobile working and outsourcing applications with high processing demands to servers at a data center, leads to a concentration of consumption, but not necessarily to raised levels of consumption overall.

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