BehAIve aims to preserve the self-determined quality of life and age-appropriate care of older people. PIRATE aims to improve the prevention of fatal cerebral haemorrhages through a precise risk assessment and targeted treatment decisions. Both projects have set themselves the joint goal of integrating digital innovations in everyday healthcare and are now transitioning to the implementation phase.
BehAIve: AI-based support for older people in everyday life
Digital solutions can make everyday life easier, but are often not used if there is an insufficient level of corresponding technical background knowledge. For older adults, in particular, digital assistants often lack sufficient user-friendliness, they are unable to adapt to certain situations, and cannot integrate medical expertise based on what the adults’medical history or needs.
The collaborative project ‘BehAIve’ (Behaviour Monitoring and Support of Older Adults), led by Prof. Dr. Kristina Yordanova, Head of the Institute of Data Science, plans to develop intelligent systems to support older adults in their home environment. “Our goal is to develop technologies that not only work, but are actually tailored towards the situation and the needs of a person and allow them to maintain their autonomy,” explains Yordanova. “We aim to systematically ensure that AI systems respect the values, needs and boundaries of older people and only intervene when it is absolutely necessary.” The BehAIVe system will combine hybrid AI methods for sensor-based monitoring and error detection both in everyday activities such as cooking or shopping, as well as activities during an inpatient hospital stay, such as eating, drinking, or taking medication with AI-driven interaction. This provides support adapted to the situation, for example by presenting voice-controlled reminders, explanations, or visual cues on touch displays.
The project thus addresses one of Germany’s central societal challenges - demographic change. The proportion of older people is particularly high in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. At the same time, the federal state is developing into a healthcare region. The scientific project goes beyond this: “‘BehAIve’ should strengthen and increase the visibility of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s research landscape in the field of intelligent support systems for seniors,” says Yordanova. “We aim to establish a national and international location fed by a team of AI-researchers, doctors, psychologists, and practice partners.”
PIRATE: AI-based risk assessment for brain aneurysms
The collaborative project ‘PIRATE’ (Personalised Intracranial Risk Assessment for Evaluating the Treatment of Aneurysm Patients), under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Susanne Schnell, Professor of Medical Physics at the Institute of Physics, has commenced at the same time. PIRATE tackles one of the most critical neurovascular diseases: the brain aneurysm. A brain aneurysm is a pathological balloon-like bulge in a cerebral blood vessel that occurs in older age and more often in women than in men. If the aneurysm bursts, it can lead to life-threatening cerebral bleeding, resulting in permanent damage, or even death. At the same time, treatment of the aneurysm poses similar risks.
The ‘PIRATE’ project aims to develop a personalised risk assessment for every patient that can be tested by the treating doctors as a decision-making aid in the form of a new software prototype. This should avoid over and undertreatment of the patients and help to minimise the risk of severe subsequent damage that can lead to death.
With ‘PIRATE’, the team around Professor Schnell is currently developing an AI-supported software prototype that uses MRI-imaging, patient data and biomedical models to create a more precise, individual risk profile. “We aim to support doctors making treatment decisions by providing them with evidence-based data analysis,” stresses Schnell. “The project has the clear objective of enabling a personalised treatment recommendation, i.e. whether active treatment is necessary or the aneurysm should be monitored using imaging processes. The prototype should help to avoid over and undertreatment, which will considerably increase patient safety and reduce the costs for the healthcare system. In this way, we will provide the treating doctors with a specific, fact-based tool for their decision making.”
A joint goal: research for society
Both ‘BehAIve’ and ‘PIRATE’ are part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s applied research excellence programme [de] and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme for the funding period 2021-2027, which support cutting-edge research and develop the academic and economic strength of the federal state. The two new collaborative projects place technological innovations – in particular AI-based systems – at the forefront of practical healthcare. “These projects show that Greifswald is not only a research location for biology and medicine, but is also able to lead the pack when it comes to the digital transformation of the healthcare sector,” states Yordanova. “We are developing and using AI where it is needed most: to protect life and maintain the independence of our citizens.”
Further information
Link to Professor Schnell’s research group
Link to the BehAIve project
The project is co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the European Fund for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern [de].
Contacts at the University of Greifswald
Project ‘BehAIve: Behaviour Monitoring and Support of Older Adults’
Prof. Dr. Kristina Yordanova
Institute of Data Science
Felix-Hausdorff-Straße 18, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 5500
kristina.yordanovauni-greifswaldde
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-yordanova-17579b66/
Project ‘PIRATE: Personalised Intracranial Risk Assessment for Evaluating the Treatment of Aneurysm Patients’
Prof. Dr. Susanne Schnell
Medical Physics, Institute of Physics
Felix-Hausdorff-Straße 6, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 4740
susanne.schnell@uni-greifswald.de