ZHAW Digital Health Lab
The ZHAW Digital Health Lab brings together experts from the fields of biomedicine, health, technology and business, who together create innovations for digitisation in healthcare.
Our vision
We firmly believe that through sustainable digital transformation, the healthcare system can be enhanced, leading to improved health and well-being for the population and all stakeholders.
Our mission
Our contribution to fostering intelligent digital transformation in the healthcare sector includes:
- Conducting application-oriented, interdisciplinary research and development while ensuring the transfer of knowledge and methods into both education and practical application.
- Connecting expertise from specialized research groups and establishing practical contacts across various domains, roles, and hierarchies.
- Cultivating synergies through collaborative network efforts, thereby serving as a unique hub for interdisciplinary, application-oriented excellence.
Would you like to be informed about current news, studies and publications, events and current projects in the field of Digital Health? Our newsletter is published about 3 - 4 times a year.
Digital Health Lab Day
In keynotes, workshops, poster presentations and start-up pitches as well as other formats, the developments and specific applications of digital solutions for the healthcare sector will be presented and discussed using impressive showcases.
Digital Health Lab Day 2025 - Smart Hospitals & Organizations
Digital Health Lab Day 2024 - People, Technologies & Processes
Digital Health Lab Day 2023 - Digital Strategies for Future Healthcare
Digital Health Lab Day 2022 - Smart Healthcare & Digital Innovation
Digital Health Lab Day 2021 - Implementing Digital Health Innovations
Digital Health Lab Day 2020 - Digital Citizen-based Medicine
Projects
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Antimicrobial Resistance Tracker (AMR)
The goal of the project is to strengthen surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in animals and food products, with a focus on international travelers. The project will explore (and quantify the uncertainty of) using AI-based text and image mining techniques to extract data on the prevalence of…
current, 08/2025 - 07/2028
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User-centered desgin of a resource-based selfmanagement app (EmPower)
The project develops a pilot self-help app to strengthen self-efficacy and quality of life for those affected. By applying a user-centered design, needs are assessed, a prototype is created, and acceptance and usage potential are evaluated.
current, 05/2025 - 01/2026
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AI-BRIDGE - A Think-and-Do-Tank for Responsible Development and Societal Alignment of Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI-BRIDGE)
AI-BRIDGE brings responsible AI to the ground by bridging the gap between societal values and development of AI technology and solutions. The AI-BRIDGE Think-and-Do Tank will help organizations to exploit the potential of AI while complying with legal requirements and being compatible with societal…
current, 04/2025 - 12/2029
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Playful support for digital change in care or nursing homes
ImaginEd is a simulation game for supporting digital change in schools. We want to explore the extent to which the game is suitable for use in retirement/nursing homes (APHs) and what needs to be adapted for specific contexts, so that APHs can also be supported.
current, 03/2025 - 02/2026
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Evidence-Based Diagnostic Assistance for Echocardiography (EchoRapp-AI)
Echocardiography is the most common method for assessing cardiovascular conditions, yet complex and time-consuming. The proposed solution ensures improved, cost-effective patient care by generating comprehensive and evidence-based diagnostic reports, leveraging automated image and data analysis.
current, 11/2024 - 09/2026
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RobotCare – User experience in development of service robots for elderly care
Objectives of the project: / Establish a systematic dialogue between the technology developers and researchers and the elderly/healthcare institution stakeholders (including medical, care, and service personnel, management, patients, and their families) in both regions and develop a suitable…
expired, 09/2024 - 08/2025
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Deep Learning-Based Real-Time EEG Monitoring for Clinical Interventions (ConCLAS)
The ConCLAS project pioneers deep-learning analysis of high-density EEG data, combining it with real-time closed-loop auditory brain stimulation. The resulting enabling technology enhances non-invasive brain interventions developed by Tosoo AG and TI Solutions AG, and advances clinical diagnostics…
current, 09/2024 - 08/2027
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Usability Study ZHAW - mobile speech documentation in clinical contexts (USZ-MSIKU)
In collaboration with the digital health start-up Adamcares, the ZHAW Usability Lab is investigating the user-friendliness and acceptance of a voice-based documentation for nurses, powered by an AI. The goal is to see if and how the integration on a smartphone or tablet immediately reduces the…
expired, 08/2023 - 12/2024
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Stroke DynamiX – Graphical and Causal Networks for Personalized Stroke Management
Stroke DynamiX explores data-driven stroke management using machine-learning techniques in a consortium of statistics researchers, translational enablers, and clinical partners. We implement statistical tools to dynamically model stroke epidemiologically and predict real-time sepsis onset in the…
current, 05/2023 - 04/2026
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Machine Learning for Body Composition Analysis (ML-BCA)
The Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI) of the ZHAW, together with the Cantonal Hospital Aarau, has laid the foundations for machine learning-supported body composition analysis on image files of the KSA within the framework of preliminary studies and has achieved promising results. The aim of…
expired, 04/2023 - 03/2025
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Digital Health Zurich: a practice lab for patient-centred clinical innovation
Digital Health Zurich researches digital health solutions in the hospital context and implements them efficiently and with practical relevance. Core topics are Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROMs), remote monitoring, integrated care and related technologies as well as empowerment of patients and…
current, 02/2023 - 01/2028
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Improving the well-being of residents in care homes by making catering services more flexible with the help of technology
It was known from previous projects that catering services in retirement and nursing homes are currently strongly geared towards working hours and the presence of employees. With the increasing individualisation of society, it can be assumed that future residents will demand more flexible catering…
expired, 10/2022 - 01/2023
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Design Living-Lab
current, 10/2022 - 10/2027
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Building a global bridge in health professions
Motivation/Rational: Given the rapid change in the health care capacity and demand land-scape globally, looking at international collaboration for health professional education is key to success to meet future challenges nurses and midwives will be confronted with. The School of Health Sciences ZHAW…
expired, 09/2022 - 10/2024
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OSR4H – Open Set Recognition for Hematology
Development of a Proof of Concept for visual Open Set Recognition (OSR) algorithms applied to a Hematology task, the classification of white blood cells.
expired, 08/2022 - 03/2023
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AI powered CBCT for improved Combination Cancer Therapy (AC3T)
The project enables a novel, combined, adaptive cancer therapy combining tumor treating field and radiation therapy due to significantly improved static (3D) and time-resolved (4D) low dose Cone Beam Computer Tomography images based on artificial intelligence image reconstruction algorithms.
expired, 05/2022 - 02/2025
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Surgical Proficiency – Data-driven transformation of surgical education for proficiency-based performance
Training on patients according to the principle of “see one, do one and teach one” no longer corresponds to today’s requirements and technical opportunities regarding education of surgical residents. During the Covid-19 pandemic, most hands-on training had to be discontinued, leading to an almost…
current, 05/2022 - 04/2026
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AUTODIDACT – Automated Video Data Annotation to Empower the ICU Cockpit Platform for Clinical Decision Support
Monitoring diverse sensor signals of patients in intensive care can be key to detect potentially fatal emergencies. But in order to perform the monitoring automatically, the monitoring system has to know what is currently happening to the patient: if the patient is for example currently being moved…
expired, 02/2022 - 12/2022
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Deep Brain Vessel Profiler
Enhancing brain angiograms for personalized stroke management
expired, 01/2022 - 12/2023
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Digital Companion
To increase patient adherence, the Digital Companion combines electronic medical records with a patient app to create a highly integrated system, closing the loop from one consultation to the next. Helmedica is thus gearing up against foreign competition.
expired, 07/2021 - 06/2024
Publications
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Dima, Alina F.; Shit, Suprosanna; Qiu, Huaqi; Holland, Robbie; Mueller, Tamara T.; Musio, Fabio; Yang, Kaiyuan; Menze, Bjoern; Braren, Rickmer; Makowski, Marcus R.; Rueckert, Daniel,
2025.
Parametric shape models for vessels learned from segmentations via differentiable voxelization[paper].
In:
Wachinger, Christian; Luijten, Gijs; Elhabian, Shireen; Gopinath, Karthik; Egger, Jan, eds.,
Shape in Medical Imaging.
Workshop on Shape in Medical Imaging (ShapeMI MICCAI), Daejeon, South Korea, 27. September 2025.
Cham:
Springer Nature.
pp. 247-261.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 16171.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-06774-6_19
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Achermann, Basil B.; Drewek, Anna; Lorenzetti, Silvio R.,
2025.
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000005269
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2025.
Digitale Gesundheitsinterventionen per Chatbot : die Smartphone-Apps SELMA und BalanceUP.
In:
HPR Symposium, Interlaken, Schweiz, 4. September 2025.
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Schneider Stingelin, Colette; Merkle, Thorsten; Gerber, Nicole; Zigan, Nicole,
2025.
In:
7th Digital Health Lab Day, Winterthur, Switzerland, 3 September 2025.
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2025.
Keynote on the evaluation of PDTx.
In:
UMZH Precision Digital Therapeutics Summer School, Zurich, Switzerland, 18-22 August 2025.
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Barco, Daniel; Stadelmann, Marc; Oswald, Martin; Herzig, Ivo; Lichtensteiger, Lukas; Paysan, Pascal; Peterlik, Igor; Walczak, Michal; Menze, Bjoern; Schilling, Frank-Peter,
2025.
MInDI-3D : iterative deep learning in 3D for sparse-view cone beam computed tomography.
arXiv.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.09616
Contact
Would you like to know more about the ZHAW Digital Health Lab? Alternatively, would you like to join us in creating healthcare innovations? Contact us at digitalhealthlab@zhaw.ch.
