Media workshop on AI in healthcare
The fifth edition of the DSI media workshop offered media professionals the opportunity to learn about current developments in the field of healthcare and artificial intelligence (AI).
Artificial intelligence has given a boost to digitalization in healthcare and will open up new possibilities in the coming years. At the DSI media workshop on April 8, 2025, media professionals were able to find out in which direction this development is heading. Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Witt, Co-Director of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI), and Prof. Dr. Philipp Fürnstahl, Head of ROCS – Research in Orthopedic Computer Science at the Balgrist University Hospital, were on hand to answer questions from the participants.
In her input, Claudia Witt provided an overview of digitalization and AI in healthcare. She was able to present current and not yet published data from the Digivox survey, which showed, among other things, that the population has a positive view of the use of AI when it comes to facilitating the understanding of medical texts. However, the idea that AI could help patients decide whether a visit to the doctor was necessary was seen as positive by less than a third of respondents. «That did surprise me,» said Witt. She also explained that regulatory requirements in medicine ensure that the pace of AI implementation is significantly slower than in other, less regulated areas.
Philipp Fürnstahl presented the Surgical Research and Teaching Center OR-X at Balgrist University Hospital, which he co-founded. OR-X consists of a research operating room designed to enable surgical innovations to be put into practice more quickly, and a training laboratory where operations can be simulated and practiced. The OR-X is equipped with modern technological tools. Among other things, a study conducted there showed that certain work steps can be carried out more efficiently with augmented reality, which in turn reduces the risk of infection for patients.
This fifth edition of the DSI media workshop also generated lively discussions. The next workshop will take place in fall 2025 on the topic of cybersecurity. The DSI media workshop is supported by the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz.