The active participation of patients is an important factor for successful treatment results and optimal healthcare. The recently launched FFG project SimplifAI is therefore developing a system over the next two years that will make a significant contribution to patient autonomy, to elevating the relationship between physicians and patients, and to better care.
If patients can understand and comprehend their findings, they gain the ability to classify their illnesses and ask physicians relevant questions, which leads to more knowledge about therapeutic measures and promotes their acceptance. Well-informed patients can actively participate in the planning and implementation of these measures. In this way, they can contribute directly to their success. The project combines findings from research areas such as natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence, data protection, radiology and social medicine. The goal is to develop a system that uses artificial intelligence to translate radiological findings into a language that patients can understand.
The Know Center, a leading European innovation and research center for trustworthy AI and Data Science, contributes its expertise in processing German-language texts in the medical field, especially in the areas of privacy-friendly NLP and text simplification. Especially in the medical field, sensitive handling of personal health data is essential and necessary. The Know Center is specialized in the application of methodologies that ensure the privacy of patients. This ensures responsible handling of health data, the processing, and analysis of which can take place both inside and outside the hospital, as well as at the responsible specialist’s office
The project also explores ways of presenting medical content in such a way that it can also be understood by nonmedical professionals. Providing explanations of medical terms, concentrating on the most essential content, and replacing complex terms with simpler ones all contribute to better comprehensibility and are of immense benefit to patients and healthcare professionals. Among other things, it should also help referring physicians to communicate more clearly with patients, which is beneficial for their relationship and for the further course of therapy.
SimplifAI is a project funded by the FFG (IKT der Zukunft) with a project volume of 1.3 million euros. It is led by the Department of Radiology at the Medical University of Graz (MUG). In addition to the Know Center, cooperation partners include World Direct, chax.at, and FH-JOANNEUM.
Here to the project website: https://www.simplifai.at/