The Innovationsausschuss beim Gemeinsamen Bundesausschuss (G-BA) is funding 33 new projects in healthcare research. A total of 186 project applications were received in response to the funding announcements of December 2019. Nine project proposals from the open topic area and 24 project proposals from the topic-specific area received a positive funding decision.

Our project CASSANDRA (Clinical ASSist AND aleRt Algorithms – Early detection of postoperative complications with machine learning algorithms) is one of the projects funded for three years.

The aim of the project is to evaluate Machine Learning (ML) in the detection of postoperative complications after major abdominal surgery. By means of digital records and ML-driven analysis of perioperative risk factors, postoperative parameters as well as telemedical vital parameter monitoring, it is to be examined whether complications requiring treatment – in particular infections of the abdominal cavity after liver, pancreas, stomach and intestinal surgery – can be automatically detected and predicted, in order to develop the basis for an autonomous real-time monitoring system on normal wards.
CASSANDRA is a collaboration of Axel Winter, Dr. Max Maurer, Prof. Dr. Igor M. Sauer (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Bert Arnrich, Head of the Chair, Professor for Digital Health - Connected Healthcare, Hasso Plattner Institut.