On September 16th, following a recommendation of the Bavarian Prime Minister Dr. Markus Söder, a special session specifically on Digital Health and COVID-19 took place. Digital Health is a new and vast area of research. For this first edition, the Expert Dialogue on Digitalization group agreed to investigate the topic of Digital Health in exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI). They approached high-level scientists and experts in the seven regions who shared their insights on “How can AI support approaches to slowing and ending the COVID-19 pandemic: reports from the regions”.
The eleven speakers from all seven regions were experts in AI, epidemiology, medical statistics, clinical research, drug development, ethics, law, and public health as well as representatives of public health authorities. For this launch session, the Upper Austrian MedTech Cluster successfully approached the Upper Austrian innovative company Symptoma (www.symptoma.at). Symptoma presented their EU-awarded digital health assistant and symptom checker. Dr. Jama Nateqi, Symptoma CEO, gave the inaugural presentation.
Moreover, a Digital Excursion gave insights into the MedTech scene of the host region. Therefore the flag-ship research project ”MEDUSA“ (Medical Education in Surgical Aneurysm clipping), funded by the government of Upper Austria, and the new web app ”Covidoor“, a smart COVID-19 Doorman, were presented.