R&D Engagement and Science Communication

The Institute's research addresses the rapidly increasing complexity in healthcare. The amount of medical data available and the growing number of treatment options create increasing complexity that needs to be managed in everyday medical practice. We want to achieve better patient outcomes and support medical professionals in their demanding everyday tasks to act more precisely and efficiently in the networked future. The digital extension of human decision-making processes is not perfect and has its shortcomings just as much as purely human procedures. It is a matter of uniting the specific capabilities of both worlds and adapting technological processes to human needs and abilities. Human-centered digitalization can visualize, explain, and help manage this complexity. Our concern is to make these new procedures understandable and accessible in our science communication. We also address topics artistically, utilizing or uniting digital medical image data, anatomical-medical illustration, and volume renderings to develop visuals and illustrate the R&D performed at the Institute. Thereby, we are opening our R&D and integrating artists and scholars in the humanities. Our focus is on inclusive, life-long education, collaborative production, and scientifically inspired art. Laypersons and experts are invited to get involved, learn, and exchange ideas eye-to-eye with our scientists. We are committed to raising awareness about the influence of digital transformation on health care. The aims are:

• making the outcome and impact of our R&D accessible
• bolstering digital sovereignty for cooperating partners, universities, schools, employees, the media, and the broader public
• fostering the engagement with and ownership of future technology
• stimulating critical dialog within society about the impact of new technology 
• creating meaningful interactions between diverse players in society and STEM scientists in digital medicine

Engagement is a two-way process involving attention and interaction for mutual understanding and benefit. We aim to support evidence-based discussions by learning and co-creating to build confidence in digital medicine and related STEM sciences.

This short movie shows the dynamic reconstruction of the blood flow of a healthy human heart. New imaging methods for flow visualizations as shown are integrated into software assistants to help doctors determine how the blood flow changes due to heart diseases without using a catheter. They help calculate how the blood pressure and shear forces on the wall of the blood vessels change for patients with heart valve problems. Additional patient-specific numerical flow simulations could help estimate the benefits provided by a new heart valve before an intervention.