To provide an overview of these methods, the second "Clinics Meets Data Science" symposium was held on site at the USZ on June 16, 2022, under the auspices of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich (CCCZ) and broadcast live over the Internet.
The amount of data generated at the USZ and other hospitals is rapidly increasing with the development and establishment of new digital technologies. To realize the full potential of this data for improved personalized medicine, new computational methods are needed. To provide an overview of these methods, the second „Clinics Meets Data Science“ symposium was held on site at the USZ on June 16, 2022, under the auspices of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich (CCCZ) and broadcast live over the Internet. Renowned scientists and physicians provided a full day of insights into the latest data processing technologies and algorithms that are currently being used and will be used in the near future in hospitals in Switzerland and abroad.
In his foreword to the symposium, Dr. Abdullah Kahraman, Head of Clinical Bioinformatics at the Institute of Pathology and Molecular Pathology and main organizer of the symposium, emphasized the importance of effective communication between data scientists and physicians for personalized medicine in hospitals. The focus of this year’s symposium was the security of patient data. Various presentations presented current European and Swiss projects of the Hamburg University, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the Data Governance Board of the USZ, which guarantee secure custody, processing and exchange of patient data. In panel discussions, various aspects of data security were explored in depth but also questions such as the benefits of artificial intelligence in hospitals were discussed.
In addition, scientific papers were presented that highlighted the essential importance of data science methods for answering biological and clinical questions. For example, Dr. Hella Bolck from the Unispital Zurich presented machine learning algorithms that recognize morphological and genetic relationships of cancer cells. Prof. Adrian Egli from the Unispital Basel introduced the audience to the Swiss Pathogen Surveillance Platform, which enables the monitoring of pathogens and resistance development within Switzerland based on molecular data. Prof. Philipp Fürnstahl from Balgrist Hospital showed the latest developments in augmented reality, which allow more precise orthopedic interventions in operating rooms. And Prof. Nils Gehlenborg of Harvard Medical School presented computer-based tools for multifaceted visualization of diverse genomic data, while Dr. Denis Schapiro of Heidelberg University Hospital presented new algorithms for identifying disease-related biomarkers and Dr. Kjong Lehmann of RWTH Aachen University Hospital described the determination of carcinogen-induced DNA signatures in cancer cells using mathematical and computational methods.
The digitization of hospitals is progressing rapidly. Therefore, there will be no lack of exciting topics at the interface between hospitals and Data Science in the future.