Symposium in Vienna

AI in medicine: nothing works without patients

At the 6th Praevenire Digital Health Symposium in Vienna, experts debated the high-tech future of medicine.

(Bild: ©sdecoret - stock.adobe.com)

Digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI/AI) can only be implemented in the healthcare sector with the patients concerned. The benefits must be recognizable and transparency guaranteed. This was explained by experts at the 6th Praevenire Digital Health Symposium in Vienna. Former Health Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein (FPÖ) was "scolded" by Clemens Martin Auer, former head of section in the Ministry of Health.

According to experts, artificial intelligence offers great potential for improving patient care. "Patients are often only diagnosed when it is already too late. The future lies in a shared, trust-based healthcare system that is supported by artificial intelligence," said Viktoria Prantauer, herself a former breast cancer patient and independent consultant on patient issues in the healthcare sector.

The expert explained that many new IT projects in the healthcare system of the future would fall into the "valley of tears" after conception and at the start of implementation. According to Prantauer, the unavoidable strategy for the future: "The people affected must be brought in from the research question."

One example: the Tidepool Loop software program, which received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year. The highlight: people affected by type 1 diabetes worked together with technicians to develop an open source program that is compatible with insulin pumps and blood glucose monitoring systems on the market and thus makes daily life easier for those affected.

Expert criticizes overregulation
According to Wolfgang Schuster, Director of the Institute for Holistic Health Management and Care in Luxembourg, this also requires society and politics to be open to new developments. "The obstacles in Europe? If something comes onto the market, there are already cries for regulation." Ethics and morals do not need to be constantly redefined in medicine. The oath of Hippocrates from ancient times is enough for that.

Former FPÖ Health Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein was subsequently heavily criticized by Clemens Martin Auer, former head of section in the Austrian Ministry of Health. Auer said on Friday that Hartinger-Klein had "messed up" essential parts of the further development of the Austrian electronic patient file ELGA. ELGA had simply "got stuck" in terms of applications. With regard to Hartinger-Klein, Auer spoke of an "era of gifted cluelessness".

After the system in Austria had ensured the retrievability and exchangeability of patient data, the EU was only now tackling the secondary use of the information for health planning and science. Auer had previously come to the health department in the wake of ÖVP Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat, and his differences with ÖVP Chancellor Sebastian Kurz over the Covid-19 vaccine orders made headlines.