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Research Projects

SAKuDA

In the project “SAKuDA - A language assistance system for culturally and linguistically diverse elderly care”, an AI-based app is being further developed to provide support in inpatient care, taking into account the cultural and linguistic requirements of people with a migration biography.
Comprehensive care documentation is an important tool for quality assurance and serves to control and verify all care measures. Care activities must be documented systematically, correctly in terms of content and subject matter, promptly and continuously. At the heart of the project is a software solution whose speech-to-text function enables both day-to-day documentation and structured information collection (SIS) in the context of anamnesis and action planning via speech. The aim is to reduce the time spent on writing down and organizing care activities.
The SAKuDA project builds on technological results from the BMBF project “dexter: A language assistance system as an interaction system for care and patients” (FKZ: 16SV8791, funding period: 01.09.2021 - 31.12.2023). The current project serves to further develop the app in cooperation with the target groups. Due to the increasing number of migrant nursing staff - especially in the Ruhr area - the language-based app is to be expanded so that it also represents added value for people who are not native speakers. The Junior Professorship for Health and E-Health will lead the consortium in cooperation with the developers of dexter GmbH and the practice partner, Stella Vitalis GmbH, in various participatory formats through a co-creation process with the target groups in order to record the requirements for the software itself as well as the structural modalities for implementation and to formatively evaluate the app in ongoing practical tests.

Funded by
Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Duration
May 2024 - April 2026

Therapeutic Encounters with AI - TEwAI

The project aims to contribute to the understanding and theory of digital transformation in healthcare by focusing specifically on digital mental health. In particular, the focus will be on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the care of individuals and their mental health. The aim of the project is:

  •  To understand how AI is reconfiguring perceptions and knowledge practices in the field of mental health
  •  To identify how sociology can contribute to our understanding of the communicative or interactive performance of AI in the context of mental health
  •  Identify means by which sociologists can participate in shaping desirable, ethical and responsible forms of AI in mental health

The project is in collaboration with the University of Sussex (UK).

DIM.RUHR - Data Competence Center for the Interprofessional Use of Health Data in the Ruhr Metropolis

The aim of DIM.RUHR is to create a data competence center for the Ruhr innovation region that primarily supports researchers from the health sector in their work with health data.

The project pursues three main objectives in the field of health data competence. The teaching objective aims to develop teaching and learning modules that are accessible to various target groups in the healthcare sector, especially those working in outpatient care. These modules should help to improve the quality of data collection, storage, processing and use. The research objective involves encouraging young scientists to conduct more research in the field of data science. The focus is on questions of data donation, consent, ethics, quality and diversity. The establishment of an experimental space provides a platform for networking research, care and practice to explore data-generating systems and existing data sets. The networking objective aims to develop structures for research data management. This includes the development of a joint health data repository in cooperation with universities and the implementation of a workshop program for regional and supra-regional networking. Through these measures, the project contributes to strengthening skills in handling health data and promoting cooperation between different players in the healthcare sector.

Cooperation partners

Consortium leader: Sven Meister, University of Witten/Herdecke
Ruhr University Bochum
Hochschule für Gesundheit University of Applied Sciences for Health
Frauenhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering
Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences
ZB MED Information Center for Life Sciences

Funded by

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Duration

November 2023 - November 2026

Dexter

Working conditions in hospitals and inpatient care for the elderly are increasingly characterized by work intensification and high physical and psychological demands. There are many reasons for the high workload and work intensification in the nursing sector. These include inefficient communication channels and increasing documentation requirements. Innovative, simple and secure ways must be created to relieve the workload of nursing staff and to increase the overall quality of care. The dexter project is meeting this challenge and developing a system that uses digital voice assistants, also known as smart speakers, to help people - even those without a basic understanding of digital technology - to contact caregivers in emergencies intuitively and without barriers by voice. The goal is to enable people in need of care to communicate their needs and problems to caregivers via the smart speaker, allowing them to prioritize and act accordingly. In addition, dexter also supports caregivers directly by enabling them to complete documentation tasks by voice.

Duration

since September 2021

    

Evaluation of the Program „Gesund und fit studieren an der FFH“

The objective of the project "Healthy and fit studying at the FFH", which is being carried out at the Fliedner University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, is to introduce a variety of behavioral and relationship preventive measures as part of the company health management for students. The overriding goal is to improve the health of students by the end of the project period (2025). The Ruhr University Bochum is responsible for the process evaluation. By means of questionnaires and interviews, interim results are used to determine whether the overarching objective or the sub-objectives have been achieved and where adjustments may need to be made.

Duration

2021-2022

Digital Health Ökosystem NRW - Fokus Start-ups 2025

The highly regulated healthcare industry poses special challenges for founders and digital health start-ups in order to successfully implement their ideas. The complex demands that the healthcare industry places on founders require industry-specific support structures along the entire start-up journey from the initial idea to the marketing of the product. In the project Digital Health Ecosystem NRW - Focus Start-ups 2025, a sustainable ecosystem with a focus on digital health start-ups has been established, which produces patient-oriented digital products and digitally supported innovative services. This works complementarily and in cooperation with the already existing diverse offers of start-up support and builds on four pillars:

  •         A continuous monitoring of the digital health landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia.
  •         Establishment of a central point of contact and a NRW-wide network to promote exchange within the start-up landscape
  •         Development of industry-specific training offers for digital health start-ups
  •         Testing of competence networks in which start-ups can meet patients and players in the healthcare sector at an early stage.

The project is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Duration

10.11.2022 - End 2025

Digi-healthstart Logo Vektor Black

Training Program for Enhancing the Adoption of Mobile Health by Persons with Mental Health Problems (Mental Mobile Health)

The aim of the project is to improve the competences of people with mental illness to improve their self-management through the implementation of mobile health solutions. The project is funded under the Erasmus+ program and takes place in exchange with four partner organizations, in Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece and Romania.

Duration

31.12.2022 - End 2024

 

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