Else Kröner-Fresenius Center (EKFZ) for Digital Health, Dresden
The Else Kröner-Fresenius Center (EKFZ) for Digital Health, is a joint cross-faculty initiative of the Dresden University of Technology (TUD), the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden (UHD) along with several Fraunhofer and Helmholtz institutes on the Dresden campus. Whereas conventionally the school of medicine and the high-tech specialists work and research independently, the EKFZ bundles their expertise and brings them together through its interdisciplinary structure and network. Driven by a medical need and with direct access to the medical infrastructure, the EKFZ accelerates digitization in medicine for the benefit of the patient.
The EKFZ focuses its research effort on the direct interface of the digital world to the patient thereby serving as a bridge between medical big data efforts and traditional biomedical engineering. The EKFZ is structured in virtual application rooms that represent strategic development areas and will be strengthened by specific appointments for center professorships, and in core rooms, which provide the scientific infrastructure and theoretical basics. The competences from the core rooms are the basis for successful translation of high-tech innovation into routine care.
Because the patient-focus is the core mission, the centerpiece of the EKFZ is the living lab, which focuses on working in a scientific context and allows a rapid access to patients by providing a common clinical testbed. New concepts and technological applications can thus be tested in a near-realistic setting. Thereby, patients benefit early on from the latest diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
