Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVISInstitute News
As a research and technology transfer institute for digital medicine, Fraunhofer MEVIS—together with the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS) and the U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA)—calls for a change of course in its new position paper “AI4Prevention”: away from late, reactive treatment and toward early, precise prevention that spares patients unnecessary or unlikely-to-succeed interventions.
Healthcare systems worldwide are under pressure: aging societies, a shortage of skilled workers, and rising costs are colliding with structures in which the majority of resources continue to flow into the treatment of advanced diseases, while too little is allocated to effective prevention
At the heart of this is the idea of a prevention continuum: Instead of organizing primary prevention, screening, and follow-up care as separate silos with rigid thresholds, AI methods use clinical, genetic, wearable, and environmental data to continuously assess and dynamically adjust individual risks throughout the lifespan. This results in care that detects serious diseases earlier, reduces the burden on doctors and healthcare professionals, and keeps people healthy for longer.
The technological foundations and much of the necessary data are already in place—what is needed now are interconnected, trustworthy health data repositories, ambitious pilot projects, and clear framework conditions that place medical decision-making autonomy, transparency, and fairness at the center of AI-supported prevention.
With “AI4Prevention,” Fraunhofer MEVIS, Leibniz BIPS, and the UBRA are providing impetus on how policymakers, researchers, and healthcare providers can jointly shape this transformation.
The “AI4Prevention” position paper (in German) is available for download here: News & Press