INDICATE Hackathon 2025

First Expert speaker announcement!

Step into the future of Intensive Care innovation by participating in our Hackathon on ICU federated data usage. This dynamic event on February 5, 2026 invites ICU clinicians, engineers, data scientists, and startups from the INDICATE and EIT Health network to co-create a vision for a global, real-time federated data infrastructure. 

Expert speakers
Our first expert speaker Dr. Stefan Buijsman, Associate Professor Responsible AI at TU Delft and member of the INDICATE Ethics Advisory Board, will focus on the topic of Equitable AI Model Performance Across Diverse European ICU Populations. Our second speaker will be announced soon!

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Two days of collaboration, learning and ACTION! 

Training & Education Workgroup in Athens, Greece

On 25th and 26th November, the INDICATE Training & Education Workgroup gathered in Athens for a productive two-day workshop focused on advancing activities according to the ADDIE model (Analysis–Design–Development–Implementation–Evaluation) such as needs assessment, content and resource design, selection of methods and activities according to the expected outcomes.

These steps are essential building blocks for developing specialised and targeted education tracks that will support successful implementation and use of the INDICATE federated infrastructure for ICU data. The tracks are developed for clinicians, researchers, innovators, data providers, data users, service providers and infrastructure providers across Europe.

Key outcomes

• Planning of next steps to deliver first education tracks and training materials
• Alignment on learner needs and educational requirements
• Strong commitment to developing shared resources: glossary & knowledge repository
• Prioritization of educational topics: Legal Framework & Data Models

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WP2 – Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Flow

The first version of the ETL flow of the Indicate-platform is almost ready! Work Package 2 recognized the need for a clear data flow to support data provider onboarding and ETL processes, and is developing this valuable and useful document in close coordination with the other Work Packages. While the ETL flow is ultimately a result of WP2, it is truly a joint effort.

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Wiki-page Critical Path and Timeline

The critical path and project timeline wiki-page is now live on the INDICATE wiki platform. The page also provides an overview on all milestones and deliverables, allowing you to quickly see what’s coming up and easily track the project’s progress.

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INDICATE Academy

All consortium members now have access to the INDICATE Academy. Currently, they can find the course “INDICATE – The Basics” there.

This course functions as a short and to-the-point online learning module in which several aspects of INDICATE are explained, such as the scope of the European Union, data space concepts, the need for a Common Data Model, federated data analysis, the INDICATE use cases, and the FAIR principles. Please feel free to fill out the open questions at the end in order to help shape the educational program.

In the coming months, the educational material will be expanded with the help of the Training and Education Workgroup and the input from the various Work Packages to support the effective, correct, and secure use of the INDICATE infrastructure. You can expect an update when new content becomes available.

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INDICATE GitHub

The INDICATE GitHub is established as a public-facing repository for collaborative development, for example for a minimal viable dataset and benchmarking dashboards. It is not intended for central infrastructure code or study execution (handled via Azure DevOps). This is particularly useful for advanced use cases, such as machine learning models and benchmarking dashboards.

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Update Data Provider Support Workgroup

This group was established in February 2025 to meet milestone MS3: “Data Provider Support Workgroup established.” Since it is aligned with the development of the Data Provider Handbook – and that work has progressed significantly in recent months – we have identified the need to refine the composition of this group and update the experts involved (November 2025).  

The new structure will help ensure that we can provide meaningful guidance and effective support to data providers during their onboarding and throughout the ETL process required to comply with the INDICATE Common Data Model.

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I am originally from California and have been living in the Netherlands for the past two years. My academic background is in political science and public policy, and I completed my Master’s in Public Policy and Governance at the University of Amsterdam. Throughout my studies and professional experience, I have been driven by a strong commitment to social justice, equitable access to public services, and the belief that healthcare systems should work for everyone. This combination of international experience and policy expertise shapes my approach to supporting large, collaborative European projects.

What do I do in INDICATE?

I’m one of the Project Managers for INDICATE, and I help keep the consortium running smoothly from day to day. I coordinate activities across the project, keep an eye on timelines, and make sure our deliverables are completed on time and to a good standard. I work closely with the project’s Principal Investigators, Michel van Genderen and Christian Jung, supporting them in their role as coordinators, and I collaborate with Jan van den Brand who leads the scientific and technical direction of INDICATE.

I’m also one of the main contact points for our consortium partners. Whether someone has a quick question or needs to be connected with the right expert, I make sure they get the support they need. Alongside that, I handle our communication with the European Commission, keep track of our obligations, and make sure all the required reporting and documentation, including technical, administrative, and financial information, is organized and submitted properly. Additionally, I’ve been working on the evaluation of all international legal regulations and how INDICATE stays compliant with these rules. 

What motivates me to be part of INDICATE?

I have deep personal motivation for working in the healthcare domain, and INDICATE offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a project that will ultimately improve patient journeys and strengthen healthcare systems across Europe. The project’s mission, which focuses on enabling safe, trustworthy, and interoperable use of health data for diagnostics and decision support, aligns closely with my passion for fairness and healthcare equity.

Being part of INDICATE means contributing to a future where healthcare is more responsive, more data-driven, and more accessible for all people. The idea that our work can support better clinical outcomes, reduce structural inequalities, and empower both patients and clinicians inspires me every day.

What do I expect to accomplish within INDICATE?

My goal is to help ensure that the INDICATE platform becomes a resource that benefits all European citizens, regardless of their nationality, background, or the country where they receive care. I want to contribute to building a system that embeds inclusivity from the start, supports minority and underserved communities, and reflects the rich diversity of Europe’s population in its data and design.

Beyond this, I hope to help create project structures and workflows that make collaboration easier across the consortium, leading to a smooth implementation of the INDICATE blueprint, the demonstrators, and the long-term sustainability model.

How does my background or expertise contribute to INDICATE’s goals?

The field of AI-enabled healthcare is rapidly evolving, and it requires careful navigation of emerging regulations, ethical guidelines, and governance frameworks. My policy and legal background helps me interpret complex documentation, ranging from EU digital health regulations to AI Act requirements, and translate these into practical steps for compliance within the project.

Additionally, my experience in public governance and stakeholder coordination supports INDICATE’s emphasis on trust, transparency, and responsible innovation. 

I bring an ability to bridge legal and organizational perspectives, which is essential for a project that must integrate scientific innovation with robust governance and real-world implementation.

Get in contact!
e: a.i.bos@erasmusmc.nl

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My name is María Parra Rodríguez Armijo. I am part of the Computational Health Informatics Group at Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, within the Andalusian Health Service (SAS). My work focuses on data interoperability, FAIR principles and the preparation of clinical data for research and innovation.

What do I do in INDICATE?

I contribute to the methodological guidance developed in WP2, designing the ETL dataflow and translating interoperability standards into practical instructions that hospitals can apply when preparing their ICU data.

What am I up to during INDICATE?

I am part of Work Package 2 (WP2), which focuses on defining the INDICATE Common Data Models and supporting data providers in preparing their ICU data for the federated infrastructure. Within WP2, I am responsible for drafting the Data Provider Handbook, which provides the methodological and technical guidance that data providers will follow when preparing and transforming their data. I also support coordination across WP2 to ensure that the guidance is coherent, feasible and aligned with the needs of the clinical use cases.

What motivates me to be part of INDICATE?

I am motivated by the challenge of making complex data harmonisation processes accessible and supporting the adoption of shared methodologies across hospitals.

Get in contact!
e: maria.p.rodriguezarmijo@juntadeandalucia.es

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Share your bio with us!

We are keen to post a bio of everyone involved in this project on the website and in the newsletter as well!

Please share:

• Who am I?
• What do I do?
• What am I up to during INDICATE? Connected to which WP? Which cases do I work on?
• What motivates me to be part of INDICATE?
• What do I expect to accomplish within INDICATE?
• How does my background or expertise contribute to the goals of INDICATE?

Please share your bio and picture with: info@indicate-europe.eu

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As the year comes to a close, we would like to extend our warmest wishes for a healthy, inspiring New Year.

In 2026, we will continue our mission to advance patient-centered care and promoting ethically responsible data use and the development and implementation of trustworthy AI models.

Thank you for your commitment, collaboration, and enthusiasm. We look forward to continuing this meaningful journey together in the coming year!

Warm wishes,

The INDICATE team

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Do you have a special request? Would you like to share news or a publication? Would you like to be (digitally) connected to a certain person? Did you speak or went to an event related to INDICATE or INDICATE-subjects? Please feel very welcome to share your questions or input with: info@indicate-europe.eu

When sharing your news, please make sure to attach your photos/images or figures and always make sure when people are visible, you have their permission to use the pictures.

Below with the format you can use to share your news with us: 

• What is the purpose of your news? 
• What title can we use?
• Who attended (names, roles, if related to INDICATE meetings/events)?
• What were the main topics discussed or key findings?
• Were any follow-up actions or appointments agreed upon?
• Is there anything special or noteworthy?

Deadline for next newsletter submissions:

• 5 December, 2025
• 13 February, 2026
• 10 April, 2026
• 12 June, 2026
• 11 September, 2026
• 6 November, 2026

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Upcoming deadline: May 2026

Milestones

WP4 | MS11	Release of closed beta version of the core services (KPMG)
WP6 | MS17	Public release of the Quality Benchmark portal for ICUs across Europe (UMG)

Deliverables

WP3 | D3.2	Roadmap for the sustained operations and governance of the ICU data infrastructure, including on-boarding and off-boarding plan and business model (KPMG)
WP4 | D4.2	Closed beta of the core services and data federation network, metadata catalogue, and centralised marketplace for services (KPMG)
WP5 | D5.2	MVP of the collaborative knowledge transfer platform (Cradeq)
WP6 | D6.3	MVP Quality Benchmarking (Charité)

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Endorsed by:

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Get in contact via e-mail:
Email address: info@indicate-europe.eu
Email address: support@indicate-europe.eu
Email address: indicate@erasmusmc.nl

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The seventh European OHDSI Symposium Continuous Collaboration for Living Evidence Generation will be held in Rotterdam (NL) on April 20^th, 2026, again at an inspiring location, the Steam Ship Rotterdam.

The symposium is a platform to share results and ideas about the use of the OMOP-CDM, tool development, and future research. The day will include a collaborator showcase including posters and podium presentations to highlight OHDSI’s research achievements, and interactive demonstrations of OHDSI’s open-source software tools.

During the symposium, you will be updated on the exciting work being done all over Europe, in National Nodes, large European Projects, and other initiatives. Like last year, they will also reserve a lot of time for networking.

The event encourages people who are new to OHDSI and are interested to learn more about this exciting initiative to join their journey. There is a slot reserved for newcomers to meet the experts in one-to-one sessions. 

The main symposium will take place on Monday, April 20^th, 2026 on the ship SS Rotterdam. Saturday, April 18^th, and Sunday, April 19^th will be dedicated to workshops and workgroup meetings, to be held in the Education Centre of the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  

On 25th and 26th November, the INDICATE Training & Education Workgroup gathered in Athens for a productive two-day workshop focused on advancing activities according to the ADDIE model (Analysis–Design–Development–Implementation–Evaluation) such as needs assessment, content and resource design, selection of methods and activities according to the expected outcomes.

These steps are essential building blocks for developing specialised and targeted education tracks that will support successful implementation and use of the INDICATE federated infrastructure for ICU data. The tracks are developed for clinicians, researchers, innovators, data providers, data users, service providers and infrastructure providers across Europe.

The meeting opened with a roundtable introduction, where all attendees briefly presented themselves, setting the stage for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Day one featured a showcase of the INDICATE knowledge platform, a review of the needs-assessment activities, and the breakout sessions of the three working groups.

Day two kicked off with great energy, as the groups shared their initial findings and continued shaping key priorities for the first topics and educational activities to be developed and delivered by June 2026. The sessions concluded with a concrete planning of the next steps for the Training & Education Workgroup.

Key highlights:

• Productive alignment on the needs assessment activities, ensuring the educational solutions address learner requirements.
• Strong collective commitment to advancing the development of critical resources for the INDICATE community such as a common glossary and repository, ensuring alignment on definitions and evidence-based insights that reflect the need for education on AI-driven critical care across Europe.
• Clear prioritisation of educational topics on the Legal Framework and Data Models, expected outcomes, methods, activities and timeline to take the next steps in developing education tracks and training materials.

A big thank you to Maria Theodorakopoulou and Despina Nikolopoulou (HSICM) for hosting us these two days!

And also thank you to all who joined! Michel van Genderen (INDICATE PI), Jan van den Brand (Erasmus MC) Joel Alexandre (ESICM), Maurizio Cecconi (ESICM), Maria Theodorakopoulou (HSICM), Maarten Ligtenberg (Cradeq), Melania Istrate (ESICM), Aliza Bos (Erasmus MC), Elisa Vera (ESICM), Despina Nikolopoulou (HSICM), Giovanna Mercurio (FPG), Celia Alvarez (SAS), Bert Cappelle (UZGhent), Mark Driessen (KPMG) and Philogirl.

ESICM: New member of the External Expert Advisory Board

We are pleased to welcome the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) to the External Expert Advisory Board of the INDICATE Project!

This collaboration strengthens our shared European reach and accelerates progress toward secure, interoperable ICU data sharing, fully aligned with the ambition of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

ESICM will be represented by Maurizio Cecconi in the External Expert Advisory Board of INDICATE.

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Our first INDICATE HACKATHON
5 February 2026

Step into the future of Intensive Care innovation by participating in our Hackathon on ICU federated data usage. This dynamic event invites ICU clinicians, engineers, data scientists, and startups from the INDICATE and EIT Health network to co-create a vision for a global, real-time federated data infrastructure.

Together, we’ll explore how to securely link ICU data across national and EU systems using anonymization techniques and federated learning. While ensuring full compliance with EU regulations and the AI Act. Participants will gain hands-on experience implementing Equitable AI Models Across Diverse European ICU Populations​ and help us build the Value-based proposition of Federated ICU Data Usage, guided by expert mentors. Expect rich cross-pollination of ideas and help shape ethical frameworks for deploying clinical and research algorithms.

Join us for this collaborative opportunity to discuss how to better implement the ICU federated data infrastructure on Thursday 5th of February from 8:00hrs to17:00hrs in Amsterdam. The Hackathon will be a part of the 2026 ESICM Intensive Care Innovation Forum. Let’s build the future of ICU data. Secure, smart, and shared.

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INDICATE Technical Lead Jan van den Brand joins EU panel on Virtual Human Twins in Brussels

The high-level event on Virtual Human Twins (VHTs), held on the 21st of October in Brussels, Belgium, brought together leading voices from the European Commission, academia, industry, and patient organisations, all united by a shared goal: accelerating innovation in health through AI, data, and trustworthy digital ecosystems.

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INDICATE Design Workshop in Rotterdam at KPMG

End of September: INDICATE Design Workshop in Rotterdam at KPMG. Lots of bright minds in the room thinking about how we can advance patient-centered care and promote the use of Intensive Care data by developing and implementing responsible and trustworthy AI-models.

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Interview with INDICATE co-lead 
Michel van Genderen on NOS Nieuwsuur

Recently, INDICATE co-lead Michel van Genderen shared his expertise on the Dutch national news program NOS Nieuwsuur, discussing the risks associated with AI tools such as Delphi-2M, which predicts the likelihood of developing diseases.

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INDICATE: What is federated data analysis?!

Healthcare institutions possess vast amounts of untapped data that could drive innovation and improve patient outcomes. As much as 97% of health data world-wide is not re-used. With INDICATE we aim to unlock this potential by building a federated data infrastructure for Intensive Care Units (ICUs) across Europe.

But how can you analyze data without accessing it directly? The answer lies in INDICATE’s design, specifically in its first development phase due for delivery in August 2025. 

INDICATE’s federated analysis architecture enables data users, such as researchers, innovators, and policy makers, to derive insights from ICU data across multiple institutions, regions, and European countries.

This figure is conceptual, please feel free to share any feedback or suggestions!

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INDICATE: What is federated data analysis?!

At the II National Congress on Innovation for the Advancement of Health Data Management and Evaluation (INNODATA 2025), held on 24–25 September 2025 in Seville (Spain), the Computational Health Informatics Group from the Virgen del Rocio University Hospital, as part of the Andalusian Health Service (Servicio Andaluz de Salud-SAS), presented their work on advancing federated integration of ICU data in Europe.

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Do you have a special request? Would you like to share news or a publication? Would you like to be (digitally) connected to a certain person? Did you speak or went to an event related to INDICATE or INDICATE-subjects? Please feel very welcome to share your questions or input with: info@indicate-europe.eu

When sharing your news, please make sure to attach your photos/images or figures and always make sure when people are visible, you have their permission to use the pictures.

Below with the format you can use to share your news with us: 

• What is the purpose of your news? 
• What title can we use?
• Who attended (names, roles, if related to INDICATE meetings/events)?
• What were the main topics discussed or key findings?
• Were any follow-up actions or appointments agreed upon?
• Is there anything special or noteworthy?

Deadline for next newsletter submissions:

• 5 December, 2025
• 13 February, 2026
• 10 April, 2026
• 12 June, 2026
• 11 September, 2026
• 6 November, 2026

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Milestones

Deliverables

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Endorsed by:

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Get in contact via e-mail:
Email address: info@indicate-europe.eu
Email address: support@indicate-europe.eu
Email address: indicate@erasmusmc.nl

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• LinkedIn
• X
• WordPress

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AI tool predicts diseases: ‘The risk is that we might interpret it the wrong way.’

Recently, INDICATE co-lead Michel van Genderen shared his expertise on the Dutch national news program NOS Nieuwsuur, discussing the risks associated with AI tools such as Delphi-2M, which predicts the likelihood of developing diseases.

How much risk does someone have of developing a disease like cancer? Or of having a heart attack? The Delphi-2M system can predict that. But does it really help us? Or does it also come with risks?

“When I read about it, I thought: yet another prediction model. Research shows that only two percent of all AI innovations are actually used in healthcare. Innovations often don’t fit well with real-world practice,” says Michel van Genderen, internist-intensivist and co-founder of the AI ethics lab REAiHL, a collaboration between Erasmus MC and TU Delft.

Van Genderen and his colleagues advise the World Health Organization (WHO) on the use of AI in healthcare: “Embracing AI in healthcare will go wrong if there are no moral ground rules. It must be safe and ethical.”

Read the full article here (in Dutch) or watch the news item here (in Dutch). The item starts at 30:30 minutes.

Source: NOS Nieuwsuur

We are pleased to welcome the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) to the External Expert Advisory Board of the INDICATE Project!

This collaboration strengthens our shared European reach and accelerates progress toward secure, interoperable ICU data sharing, fully aligned with the ambition of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

Together, we aim to support Intensive Care Units across Europe in responsibly connecting data, advancing research, improving clinical decision-making, and ultimately enhancing patient care. A key element will be the development of a federated data infrastructure, enabling hospitals to collaborate without moving data outside the hospital, while maintaining privacy, trust, and local control.

ESICM will be represented by Maurizio Cecconi in the External Expert Advisory Board of INDICATE.