News - Research in Germany

Six of Germany's Helmholtz centers are cooperating to ensure patient privacy is protected while allowing science to use patient data to advance innovative medicine. They have set up the Helmholtz Medical Security, Privacy, and AI Research Center (HMSP) to pursue this aim. The Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA), the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI), and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) are implementing the interdisciplinary work of the HMSP. The new center brings together leading experts from IT-security, privacy, artificial intelligence (AI)-machine learning, and medical professionals to allow for secure and privacy-preserving processing of medical data using technologies of the future. HMSP spokesman Michael Backes, founding director of CISPA, explained, "The gathering, analysis, and further development of enormous banks of medical data enable researchers to gain unparalleled insights and develop new approaches. Doing this in a trustworthy, secure, and efficient manner demands interdisciplinary, top-level research."