Background:

Di­gi­ta­liza­t­i­on in the health in­dus­try is mar­ching on. The term Hos­pi­tal 4.0 is de­ri­ved from In­dus­try 4.0 and its vi­si­on of di­gi­ta­li­zed pro­duc­tion. Hos­pi­tal 4.0 re­fers to the di­gi­ta­liza­t­i­on and net­wor­king of tre­at­ment and care pro­ces­ses in hos­pi­tals with the help of cy­ber-phy­si­cal sys­tems, the In­ter­net of Things, and ser­vices as sup­port sys­tems. Of cen­tral im­port­an­ce is the de­ve­lop­ment of in­tel­li­gent me­di­cal tech­no­lo­gy with a link to the IT world. [1–4] This is par­ti­cu­lar­ly the case for high­ly tech­ni­cal ra­dio­the­ra­py to tre­at tu­mors. Can­cer is one of the ma­jor cau­ses of de­ath world­wi­de, and was re­s­pon­si­ble for 9.6 mil­li­on de­aths in 2018 [5]. Re­se­arch has shown that ra­dio­the­ra­py is ap­pro­pria­te for more than 50 per­cent of can­cer pa­ti­ents [6]. This ma­kes ra­dio­the­ra­py an in­dis­pensa­ble tool in mo­dern on­co­lo­gy [7]. It helps heal can­cer and so ad­dres­ses the ob­jec­tives of the na­tio­nal De­ca­de Against Can­cer [8].

Project objectives:

The goal of the pro­ject is the de­ve­lop­ment of an in­no­va­ti­ve me­di­cal pro­duct that aids in re­pro­du­ci­b­le pa­ti­ent po­si­tio­n­ing for ra­dio­the­ra­py, with the hig­hest pos­si­ble in­ter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty and safe­ty in ima­ging and pa­ti­ent mar­king. It should have a mo­dern ope­ra­ting con­cept that pro­vi­des uti­li­ty in dai­ly me­di­cal prac­tice, and an as­sis­tan­ce sys­tem that can learn and that helps with ra­dio­the­ra­py pro­ces­ses. Spe­cial chal­len­ges are ex­pec­ted in the stan­dar­di­za­t­i­on of in­ter­faces to net­work the di­ver­se ran­ge of me­di­cal tech­no­lo­gy pro­ducts, as well as in the are­as of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty and in­tui­ti­ve man-ma­chi­ne in­ter­faces. Over­all, this in­no­va­ti­on pro­ject should achie­ve si­gni­fi­cant im­pro­ve­ments for the af­fec­ted can­cer pa­ti­ents, me­di­cal spe­cia­lists, and pro­ces­ses in me­di­cal cen­ters.

Implementation:

The pro­ject do­ve­tails with the term Me­di­cal Tech­no­lo­gy 4.0, which re­fers to di­gi­tal in­for­ma­ti­on and data pro­ces­sing in hos­pi­tals using di­gi­tal ser­vices and func­tions. It is ba­sed on an in­fra­struc­tu­re of net­wor­ked cli­ni­cal sys­tems, into which the in­no­va­ti­on can be in­te­gra­ted in the fu­ture.

The pro­ject is a col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve pro­ject by LAP GmbH La­ser Ap­pli­ka­tio­nen (https://www.lap-laser.com/industry/radiation-therapy ) and Leu­pha­na Uni­ver­si­ty of Lüne­burg. The re­s­pon­si­ble pro­ject con­tact at Leu­pha­na Uni­ver­si­ty are Dr. An­t­hi­mos Geor­gia­dis and Dr. Ni­co­las Mei­er, In­sti­tu­te for Pro­duct and Pro­cess In­no­va­ti­on (PPI).

The pro­ject is sla­ted to run un­til June 2022. Fun­ding is pro­vi­ded by the Sta­te of Lo­wer Sa­x­o­ny and the Eu­ro­pean Re­gio­nal De­ve­lop­ment Fund. The pro­ject sup­ports the Health and So­ci­al Eco­no­my spe­cia­liza­t­i­on field, a fo­cus to­pic of the Lo­wer Sa­x­o­ny Re­gio­nal In­no­va­ti­on Stra­te­gy for In­tel­li­gent Spe­cia­liza­t­i­on (RIS3).



[1] BMBF (2019): Di­gi­ta­li­sie­rung in der Me­di­zin - BMBF. www.bmbf.de/de/digitalisierung-in-der-medizin-2897.html , 28.08.2019.
[2] Wib­be­ling et al. (2018): Po­si­ti­ons­pa­pier Kran­ken­haus 4.0 – In­dus­trie 4.0 im Ge­sund­heits­we­sen. Fraun­ho­fer.
[3] IF (2019): In­no­va­ti­ons­fo­rum Kran­ken­haus 4.0. www.if-krankenhaus.de , 28.08.2019.
[4] Müller-Po­ly­zou et al. (2019): Di­gi­ta­li­sie­rung in der Strah­len­the­ra­pie 4.0. Chan­cen und Möglich­kei­ten der di­gi­ta­len Strah­len­the­ra­pie.
In: Stof­fers, Krämer, Heit­mann (Hg.): Di­gi­ta­le Trans­for­ma­ti­on im Kran­ken­haus. 1. Aufl. Kulm­bach: Me­di­en­grup­pe Ober­fran­ken – Fach­ver­la­ge GmbH & Co. KG, S. 191–214.
[5] WHO (2019) Can­cer: Key facts. www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer . Ac­ces­sed 29 June 2019
[6] Rifat Atun, Da­vid A Jaf­fray, Mi­cha­el B Bar­ton, Fred­die Bray, Mi­cha­el Bau­mann, Bha­dra­sain Vik­ram, Ti­mo­thy P Han­na, Fe­li­cia M Knaul (2015)
Ex­pan­ding glo­bal ac­cess to ra­dio­the­ra­py. The Lan­cet On­co­lo­gy Vol 16:1153–1186
[7] DE­GRO (2019) Ra­di­oon­ko­lo­gie: In­no­va­tiv, ver­netzt, zu­kunftsfähig. www.degro.org/radioonkologie-innovativ-vernetzt-zukunftsfaehig/ .
Ac­ces­sed 29 June 2019
[8] Na­tio­na­le De­ka­de ge­gen Krebs (2019). www.dekade-gegen-krebs.de . Ac­ces­sed 29 June 2019