With the support of the AI Ethics Lab at Erasmus MC – co-founded by internist-intensivist Michel van Genderen, Project Coordinator of INDICATE – TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre is accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO). From now on, the centre will advise the WHO on ethical aspects and regulations regarding AI in healthcare. Below you will find an interview with Michel van Genderen in Skipr – one of the Dutch national magazines about innovation in healthcare.
TU Delft and Erasmus MC will advise WHO on responsible AI in healthcare
TU Delft’s Digital Ethics Centre will advise the World Health Organization (WHO) on ethical and legal aspects of AI in healthcare. The research centre, which works closely with Erasmus MC, has been accredited as an official cooperation partner.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential for healthcare, but integration and implementation are struggling. Applications do not find their way to the workplace or suffer from bias. As a consultant Ethics and Governance of AI in Healthcare, TU Delft will help the World Health Organisation uphold ethical principles and healthcare standards and values. Among other things, by translating guidelines into practice. ‘Together with WHO, we have already drafted frameworks for responsible use of AI and Generative AI in healthcare,’ says Stefan Buijsman, associate professor of Responsible AI TU Delft. ‘Now they are approaching us to start making this concrete. How will it work in practice?’
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Michel van Genderen: ‘‘AI can only improve healthcare if we have a good ethical foundation.’
With the support of the AI Ethics Lab at Erasmus MC – co-founded by internist-intensivist Michel van Genderen, Project Coordinator of INDICATE – TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre is accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO). From now on, the centre will advise the WHO on ethical aspects and regulations regarding AI in healthcare.
“AI has great potential to transform healthcare, but that can only happen if what we do is done right,” said Michel van Genderen.
Quality of life
Healthcare systems worldwide are under pressure. Implementing AI in healthcare is one of the most frequently cited solutions. However, applying AI in healthcare is not without challenges. In fact, research shows that only two percent of all AI innovations are actually adopted in practice. Many innovations do not function well in real-world settings or fail to gain acceptance from healthcare professionals. Additionally, AI introduces various ethical dilemmas—such as the decision between initiating life-extending treatments for a patient versus focusing on quality of life.
In practice
To successfully implement AI in healthcare, it is crucial to establish clear ethical standards. International guidelines have been developed, but they must still be translated into practical application. This is where the TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre will play a key role. The centre collaborates with Erasmus MC in the AI Ethics Lab (REAiHL).
Safe and responsible use
Van Genderen co-founded the AI Ethics Lab in 2023 together with intensivist and ICU head Diederik Gommers, Associate Professor Stefan Buijsman from TU Delft, and Distinguished Professor Jeroen van den Hoven from TU Delft. The lab brings together nurses, doctors, data scientists, data engineers, researchers, and ethicists to ensure that AI is deployed safely and responsibly in patient care.
The foundation
Van Genderen explains: “I am convinced that AI will transform the way we work in healthcare. But AI can only improve healthcare if we build on a strong ethical foundation. The foundation is key—what we do must be right. We must take the lead and define the standards in this emerging field.”
“AI is already helping us determine when a patient can be safely discharged after an oncological surgery.”
Ethical norms are crucial for the responsible use of AI in healthcare.
Earlier discharge
“The WHO accreditation confirms that this collaboration is unique and improves healthcare for everyone. We are already seeing this in an ongoing project at Erasmus MC, where AI helps us determine when a patient can be safely discharged after a major oncological surgery. On average, these patients are able to go home four days earlier.”
Potential for the future
This success lays the groundwork for further innovations. Ideas developed at TU Delft can be tested directly in a hospital environment, opening new possibilities for real-world applications. Stefan Buijsman, co-founder of the TU Delft Digital Ethics Centre, is enthusiastic about the potential: “It is essential to assess whether our ideas work in a hospital setting. We develop ethical guidelines and technological solutions, and Erasmus MC provides the environment to test their practical effectiveness and identify unmet needs.”
“By joining forces, we ensure that AI can actually be used in the workplace—because it is truly needed.”
A necessary step
Gommers also shares his enthusiasm: “This accreditation confirms that the collaboration between TU Delft, Erasmus MC, and Erasmus University is yielding significant results within Convergence. By combining our strengths, we ensure that AI can be effectively implemented in clinical practice—because it is truly needed. However, this must always be done safely and responsibly.”
The Responsible and Ethical AI in Healthcare Lab (REAiHL) is a partnership between Erasmus MC, TU Delft, and software company SAS. The Erasmus MC DataHub serves as the lab’s base, where scientists, physicians, and data scientists collaborate to develop guidelines for ethical and relevant AI implementation in healthcare. Erasmus MC consolidates all its AI expertise within the AI Accelerator, and REAiHL is part of the Convergence Centre for Responsible AI in Healthcare.
The WHO is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) dedicated to global health.
Kick-off Meeting INDICATE Project – January 27-28, 2025
January 27 – 28, 2025 On January 27 and 28, 2025, the official kick-off meeting of the INDICATE project took place at Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío in Seville. This event brought together experts and project partners to discuss the objectives and plans for the project.
INDICATE – How data and AI models can improve intensive care medicine
An interview with Patrick Rockenschaub, Postdoctoral researcher at the Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, held by Sabine Kálóczi.
Since the beginning of December 2024, INDICATE has been a consortium working at European level to make data from intensive care units available and usable. In line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the aim is to create new AI models that will improve the care of patients in intensive care in the future.
With Day 2 underway, we look back at an amazing Day 1 of the Live Kick-Off in Seville at Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío!🚀 On January 27 we officially launched our @EU-endorsed INDICATE research project in Seville, Spain! A big thank you to our wonderful hosts, Carlos Luis Parra-Calderón and Celia Alvarez Romero, for their warm welcome 🌍
Day 2 of the INDICATE kick-off was filled with engaging discussions on federated data models and federated machine learning in the #european union. What exactly are these approaches and how will we leverage them within the INDICATE project?
🇪🇺 INDICATE: Connecting Data in European Intensive Care 🚀Today – December 2, 2024 – marks the launch of the INDICATE project, a pioneering European initiative designed to enhance data access and sharing between intensive care units across Europe.
Who am I? I am Jan van den Brand and I am the Technical Lead for the INDICATE project.
What am I up to during INDICATE? The roles and responsibilities of the INDICATE Technical Lead involve the technical aspects of the INDICATE project, which aims to establish a secure and widely accessible infrastructure for standardized ICU data from various European countries. This includes:
Technical Oversight: Ensuring the design and development of the federated data infrastructure according to the Well Architected Framework, which emphasizes resilience, availability, security, and sustainability.
Data Protection: Implementing a zero-trust approach to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and systems.
Strategic Planning: Establishing the ELSI framework for data access, data protection, and ethical application of AI.
To that end I am working closely with various work package leads and partners to ensure the successful integration and implementation of the infrastructure.
Who am I? I studied medicine in Austria, was trained in Germany, did a research fellowship in the US, and continued working in Germany till recently.
I am Professor for Anaesthesia and Anaesthesiological Intensive Care Medicine and the Chair of the Clinical Division of General Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.
What am I up to during INDICATE? Providing data, collaborating regarding science, and clinical benchmarking. Think about the future and how the project might improve clinical care and critical care research.
Date: March 4, 2025 – March 5, 2025 Location: Brussels
Interesting event for Indicate partners! EIT Health 2-day event in Brussels 04-05 March on the access/share/use of data.
Driving Innovation in Health Data and Digital Health Two Days, Two Perspectives: Empowering Healthcare Providers and Start-ups to Shape the Future of Digital Health and Innovation.
Date: March 25, 2025 – March 26, 2025 Location: Luxembourg City
The European Health Data Space – the first common thematic EU data space to be implemented – is a major game changer for delivering healthcare across European borders and enabling breakthrough research and innovation. The third edition of the European Digital HealthTech Conference will explore how this influences the development, innovation, use and adoption of digital health solutions.
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? Please feel very welcome to share your questions via: info@indicate-europe.eu
The INDICATE Data Provider Support Workgroup has been established. The responsibilities and tasks include:
Provide technical and legal support to Data Providers (hospitals making their data available through the INDICATE infrastructure) in setting up the ETL process and establishing data quality assurance and data quality control policies.
Monitor data quality and GDPR compliance after the initial onboarding of Data Providers, in close collaboration with the ELSI experts in WP3.
Develop and implement a structured monitoring plan to continuously monitor relevant KPIs for INDICATE, including the progress of Data Providers onboarding and the volume of data made available through the INDICATE infrastructure.
Implement data audit procedures based on those developed in IMI EHDEN and outlined in the OHDSI handbook.
An interview with Patrick Rockenschaub, Postdoctoral researcher at the Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, held by Sabine Kálóczi.
Since the beginning of December 2024, INDICATE has been a consortium working at European level to make data from intensive care units available and usable. In line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the aim is to create new AI models that will improve the care of patients in intensive care in the future.
