University of Bremen: Project wants to strengthen AI in care
The number of people in need of care will increase significantly in the coming years. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods can support nursing staff in their work. Researchers from the University of Bremen are investigating how the use of artificial intelligence in nursing can be successful.
AI I methods are being used more and more worldwide not only in medicine but also in nursing. For example, when it comes to distributing shift work and staff and deploying them efficiently, this can be supported by machine learning. Imminent or actual falls and changes in the mobility of older people and people in need of care can be recognized through image and signal processing. Another possibility is to support decisions in everyday care with expert systems that imitate the reasoning of a human expert. Examples would be the selection of a suitable wound dressing or an individually suitable exercise to promote movement.
Challenges for research in everyday care
The new technology offers many possibilities. However, researchers and developers in the field of care and AI often meet the challenge: In order to develop needs-based AI solutions for care, care facilities and actors from care practice must participate in research projects and work together successfully. In addition, in addition to scarce human and financial resources in care, digitization has often only progressed to a limited extent there.
How does AI succeed in care? Accompanying study by the University of Bremen started
“Nursing staff and researchers are experiencing that the meeting of the two disciplines of nursing and IT is often a balancing act between the demands of everyday nursing and those of science,” says Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann, nursing scientist at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen .
The accompanying scientific project that you have just launched is intended to help improve this. The study entitled “Process development and support for the use of AI in care” (ProKIP) advises and networks research projects that aim to support caregivers and caring relatives and to improve the self-determination and quality of life of people in need of care. They will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from March 2022.
In addition, the Bremen scientist’s project creates structures for the exchange of knowledge and data between the various research projects on AIin nursing, for example through an online platform. In addition, the researchers can take advantage of coaching and advice on aspects of nursing science, AI methods and project management. “In particular, we would also like to support AI research projects that are developing solutions in the field of care for the first time or for a short time so that they can successfully work together with stakeholders in nursing practice,” reports Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann. In addition, the project examines various issues: for example, the nursing benefits of AI solutions or the representativeness of data – for example with regard to how people with cognitive impairments or special nursing needs are represented in the data. Ethical aspects of AI in care are also discussed.
For the interdisciplinary processing of these topics, the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research and the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Bremen work with the Institute for Medical Informatics at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and the Association for Digitization in the Social Economy eV.