Sandpit Participants
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Sandpit program

The future of pe­diatric cancer care: smart, per­so­na­li­zed, and at home

At the first Sandpit work­shop funded by the Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft, an in­ter­na­tio­nal, in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry team came tog­e­ther in Saar­brü­cken to explore how to develop an AI-powered mo­ni­to­ring system for child­ren with cancer in their homes.

The energy, com­mit­ment and prac­ti­cal ap­proach of the par­ti­ci­pants were im­pres­si­ve. Led by Dominik Schön­dorf (Pe­diatric On­co­lo­gy, Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty Medical Center), the par­ti­ci­pants de­ve­lo­ped a modular concept for an AI-based home mo­ni­to­ring system for child­ren with cancer. The goal: to proac­tively iden­ti­fy medical needs before emer­gen­ci­es arise – and to improve both tre­at­ment quality and family life. Using data, ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence, and machine lear­ning, the en­vi­sio­ned in­fra­st­ruc­tu­re is sup­po­sed to connect the child’s home en­vi­ron­ment with cli­ni­cal ex­per­ti­se, de­tec­ting early warning signs such as changes in vital signs, be­ha­vi­or, or en­vi­ron­men­tal factors.

We are very gra­te­ful for the com­mit­ment of the first sandpit par­ti­ci­pants, our mo­de­ra­tors and the state se­creta­ry and are excited to see the results of this sandpit being carried forward into a pilot in­itia­ti­ve making pe­diatric cancer care safer and smarter. Updates to follow. 

  • Jan Alex­an­ders­son, DFKI Com­pe­tence Center for Ambient As­sisted Living
  • Michael Anton, Faculty of Law Con­ti­nuing Edu­ca­ti­on – Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Mridul Agrawal, iuvando Health GmbH (Mo­de­ra­ti­on)
  • Ingo Bes­ser­dich-Noß, Health.AI Project – Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Ga­brie­la Gan, Ludwig Boltz­mann Ge­sell­schaft (Mo­de­ra­ti­on)
  • Florian Sören Gerts, Charité | MDC
  • Norbert Graf, Pro­fes­sor eme­ri­tus for Pe­diatrics, Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Kerstin Hil­de­brandt-Ab­di­ka­rim, Child­ren’s Na­tio­nal Hos­pi­tal USA
  • Romeo Kunn­akat­tu, Father of a UKS Pe­diatric On­co­lo­gy Patient
  • David Lin­de­mann, state se­creta­ry and head of the state chan­cel­le­ry of the federal state of Saar­land (welcome address)
  • Donald Mabbott, Hos­pi­tal for Sick Child­ren, Canada
  • Ahmad Osman, Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­en­ces
  • Marc Remke, Pe­diatric On­co­lo­gy and Hema­to­lo­gy Clinic – Saar­land Uni­ver­si­ty Medical Center
  • Brian R. Rood, Brain Tumor In­sti­tu­te, Child­ren’s Na­tio­nal Hos­pi­tal, USA
  • Michael Schmitz, xm:lab, Hoch­schu­le der Bil­den­den Künste Saar
  • Martina Schnei­der, Tech­ni­ker Kran­ken­kas­se
  • Ariane Ser­gl­hu­ber, Kepler Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal Linz
  • Syed Zulki­fil Haider Shah, De­part­ment of In­no­va­ti­on & Di­gi­ta­li­sa­ti­on in Law – Uni­ver­si­ty of Vienna
  • Ankit Singh, Smart Con­nec­tivi­ty Ser­vices, Siemens Healt­hi­neers AG
  • Tim Walz, D4L data4life gGmbH

The idea behind the funding format: In­vi­t­ing re­se­ar­chers and re­le­vant sta­ke­hol­ders to work outside their comfort zone in un­con­ven­tio­nal con­stel­la­ti­ons in order to ge­ne­ra­te un­or­tho­dox ideas for pro­jec­ts and so­lu­ti­ons that set out to tackle highly re­le­vant chal­len­ges in today’s society.

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