Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Siemens Healthineers will work more closely together in preventive medicine. As part of a cooperation agreement, they are developing innovative measures to prevent diseases and promote health. Combining their respective expertise, the partners will jointly strengthen the research and clinical implementation of patient-centered preventive care.
“Prevention is a central component of our Strategy 2030 ‘Rethinking Health’,” said Charité Executive Board Chairman Professor Heyo K. Kroemer. “Charité’s goal is to help identify health risks at an early stage and prevent diseases as far as possible to enable proactive and sustainable care. The existing partnership between Charité and Siemens Healthineers will now be expanded to include the area of prevention–a forward-looking step towards the joint research and development of innovative care concepts.”
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“We are pleased to further deepen our decades-long partnership with Charité and to expand it into the field of disease prevention. Together, we want to raise awareness of preventive medical care in Germany, improve access to the best possible care and prevent diseases wherever possible,” said Siemens Healthineers Chief Executive Bernd Montag.
Initially, the partners aim to explore the potential of modern preventative care in the field of heart diseases as part of their collaboration. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Germany but according to studies, up to 80 percent of cases may be preventable. Currently, routine clinical examinations often only detect advanced pathological changes in the cardiovascular system. To address this, screening programs as well as risk scores and profiles will be developed to identify at-risk groups and to design precision therapies —with the goal of implementing them in clinical practice as quickly as possible. New imaging techniques, for example, can generate more detailed and precise images. In addition, advanced image processing and AI-based tools will be applied to these images in an automated way. This will allow early visualization of high-risk but still reversible vascular changes, enabling timely medical intervention.
Charité and Siemens Healthineers will now set up joint research projects aimed at enabling faster, more targeted treatment of patients, for example through new diagnostic and treatment protocols with the help of AI. In addition, AI-supported imaging techniques, patient group risk profiles, and personalized care approaches will be examined, further developed, and validated through scientific studies. Targeted prevention strategies and research are essential for better preventive care—efforts that can significantly improve public health, enhance quality of life, and reduce healthcare costs.
The research projects also include the development of a so-called “digital twin”— a digital replica that reflects relevant data and characteristics of the real person. This digital twin can be used to simulate individual health conditions and therapies, test preventive approaches and treatment options, or gain a better understanding of disease progression.
