Conclusions from the pandemic for virtual healthcare in the future

Naturally, the COVID-2 pandemic, and above all the period after it, will be discussed. Even after the pandemic, a return to analogue complacency, as was the case before the pandemic, is to be avoided at all costs, warned the Spitzenverband Digitale Gesundheitsversorgung [Central Association for Digital Healthcare] just before the German federal elections. Dr. Anne Sophie Geier, CEO of the Spitzenverband Digitale Gesundheitsversorgung, will take part in an expert panel on the future of virtual healthcare in the post-pandemic period at the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM on Monday, November 15. However, the Scientific Council for AOK Nordost already stated in March 2021 that after one pandemic, another will come. “We cannot overstate how evident it was that shortfalls on the path to comprehensive digitalization can cause huge damage, particularly in sectors such as healthcare and educational facilities, but also in general management,” reported the Council. The committee speaker, Inga Bergen, will also take part in the expert panel as a speaker on Monday. The panel on virtual healthcare after the pandemic will be led by Dr. Sarah J. Becker from the Institute for Digital Transformation in Healthcare in Witten, Germany.

A “Digital Angel” for care takers

The "Digital Angel" project focuses on caregivers. An important part of the platform consists of algorithms for detecting stress. These analyze the ECG data of caregivers and derive indicators of stress. Based on the indicators, the platform will be able to assess when a caregiver is under a lot of stress and suggest suitable measures via the assistance system. This is being developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST and will be presented by Dr. Sebastian Dries, Department Head for Healthcare, in the forum session on November 15, starting at 4:00 p.m.

Machine detection of emotions

On Tuesday, November 16, the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM will start with emotions and their machine recognition. With the title "Medical Artificial Intelligence & Robotics", the focus will be on "affective computing", i.e. systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process and simulate human emotions. For example, the EmmA project is developing a mobile assistance system that can be used for risk assessment of mental stress in the workplace and for reintegration into the workplace after a mental illness. The starting point is a multimodal real-time sensor analysis using smartphones that interprets physiological and social signals. The forum speaker is Dr. Patrick Gebhard, Head of the Cognitive Assistance Systems Working Group at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. The Bavarian company Audeering even wants to use audio recordings to detect whether a COVID-19 disorder is present. It has made a global name for itself in the field of AI-based audio analysis - especially with its scalable and fast technology to detect emotions from audio signals. Now the company is making available an app for detecting COVID from audio recordings. Dagmar Schuller, co-founder of audEERING, will speak at MEDICA. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prizewinner Prof. Elisabeth André, from Augsburg, has also been invited. She established pain recognition as a relevant capability for health assistance based on learning machines. Her work is now being used overall to equip robots or virtual characters with the ability to recognize and respond to a human's emotions.

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