Prof. Dr. Peter Dabrock

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the field of oncology in Germany. For the successful care and treatment of patients with breast cancer, a high level of information for those affected is essential in order to achieve a high level of compliance with the established structures and therapies. On the one hand, the digitalisation of medicine offers the opportunity to develop new technologies that increase the efficiency of medical care. On the other hand, it can also strengthen patient compliance by improving information and patient integration through electronic health applications. Thus, a reduction in mortality and an improvement in quality of life can be achieved. Within the framework of this project, digital health programmes are going to be created that support and complement health care. The project aims to provide better and faster access to new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in mainstream oncology care, to implement eHealth models for more efficient and effective cancer care, and to improve capacity for patients in oncologcal therapy in times of crisis (such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic). The Chair of Health Management is conducting the health economic evaluation and analysing the extent to which digitalisation can contribute to a reduction in the costs of treatment and care as well as to an improvement in the quality of life of breast cancer patients.

AI is oneveryone’s lips. Applications of AI are becoming increasingly relevant in thefield of clinical decision-making. While many of the conceivable use casesstill lay in the future, others have already begun to shape practice. Theproject vALID provides a normative, legal, and technicalanalysis of how AI-driven clinical Decisions Support Systems could be alignedwith the ideal of clinician and patient sovereignty.

vALID consistsof four subprojects. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of existing normativework on clinical AI, the ethical subproject examines which aspects the ideal ofclinician and patient sovereignty encompasses. On the basis of a de lege lataanalysis, the legal subproject analyzes and evaluates various regulatoryoptions in the national and international context. Both subprojects reflect onhow concepts of trustworthiness, transparency, agency and responsibility areinfluenced and shifted by clinical AI, both on a theoretical level and withregard to concrete moral and legal consequences.

In thetechnical subproject, and against the background of a thorough analysis of whatis technically possible and already being practiced in the clinic, mock-upsimulations of conventional, automated and integrative decision support systemswill be developed. In the empirical subproject, clinicians and patients will beexposed to these mock-up simulations. Quantitative and qualitative methods willthen be used to systematically gather perspectives and argumentative patternson the range of designs and implementations of AI-driven, clinical decisionsupport systems.

Throughoutthis process, the subprojects are continuously methodologically intertwined:The normative subprojects on the one hand develop the conceptual framework forthe empirical investigations, and on the other hand incorporate results of thelatter into their positions.

On the basis of this work, the four vALID subprojectswill finally jointly develop an ethically, legally, technically, andempirically informed governance perspective for AI-driven decision supportsystems in the context of shared clinical decision-making.