Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (CAIM)

People

Meet our researchers and AI in Medicine experts in this section!

This  non-exhaustive selection is intended to give you an insight into our work.

For an overview or to search an expert, visit our Expert Directory.

Interview

Katharina Wilmes, Department of Physiology, Uni Bern

Katharina Wilmes is fascinated by the question of how humans learn in an uncertain world. Her research creates neuroscientific models, combining mathematics, neural theory, and computational neural network simulations with experimental testing of hypotheses linking sensory experience and learning.

Researcher Portrait

Mike Falkner, Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation

Mike Falkner spends up to 10 hours a day behind a screen. What can't possibly be healthy, actually improves memory and fine motor skills. As part of the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, Mike develops video games to train memory and fine motor skills for older adults - and thus help prevent diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Interview

Negin Ghamsarian, AI in Medical Imaging

Negin Ghamsarian is a postdoctoral researcher at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research. She believes that self-supervised and semi-supervised deep learning can overcome current constraints in the feasibility of AI techniques for surgical video analysis to better predict postoperative complications and offer more precise surgical interventions.

Interview

Christoph Ammon, Institute for Crimonology, Uni Bern

Christoph Ammon's dissertation deals with the increasingly intertwined relationship between humans and machines in the wake of recent developments in AI technology. He discusses how responsibility can be adequately attributed, especially in medical applications, and whether it would make sense to define an AI as a functional legal entity.

Interview

Song Xue, Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital

Song Xue is a biomedical postdoctoral researcher specialized in deep learning at the Inselspital. Applying artificial intelligence to nuclear medicine, Song aims to reduce radiation in diagnostic PET imaging and to personalize dose prediction for radionuclide therapy.

Interview

Florence Aellen, Cognitive Computational Neuroscience

Florence Aellen is the deep learning specialist at the Cognitive Computational Neuroscience Lab of the Institute of Computer Science, University of Bern. For her PhD she works with a very interdisciplinary research team to unravel interrelations between electrical brain activity and states of consciousness.

Researcher Portrait

Inti Zlobec, Digital Pathology, Uni Bern

Inti Zlobec has chosen an academic career because she likes having the freedom to pursue her own ideas and work together with people from different domains, backgrounds and countries. As head of Digital Pathology she aims to bring out the best in each member of her team through genuine interest and appreciation, giving everyone an important role.

Researcher Portrait

Athina Tzovara, Informatics & NeuroTec, Uni Bern/Inselspital

The Assistant Professor TT in Machine Learning in Medicine explores brain activity data with artificial intelligence to understand how brain functions change during sleep or in coma patients. She works both at the Institute for Informatics of the University of Bern and for NeuroTec, the research platform of the Inselspital Neurology Department.

Interview

Amith Kamath, University of Bern

Amith Kamath wishes to facilitate faster radiotherapy treatment for patients with glioblastoma through AI-supported therapy planning. The CAIM Young Researcher Award winner is pursuing his PhD at the Medical Image Analysis group of the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research and looks forward to translating his research into a clinical tool, also through the personalized business coaching by be-advanced he received as part of his award win for “translation”.

Interview

Charlotte Kern / Verena Schöning, Inselspital

CAIM Young Researcher Award winner Charlotte Kern and her colleague Verena Schöning use different approaches such as data mining, machine learning, and modelling and simulation studies in pharmacometrics to predict the effects of medication on diseases and thus inform clinical decision making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, their research directly contributed to improved patient care.

Interview

Stavroula Mougiakakou, ARTORG Center, Uni Bern

Stavroula Mougiakakou, head of Artificial Intelligence in Health and Nutrition at the ARTORG Center, conducts applied fundamental research and with her team aims to close the gap between theory and practice. In the highly interdisciplinary and very competitive field of AI in medicine she sees a clear need for rigorous scientific testing that can assure approaches, tools and processes that can benefit users.

Interview & Video

Andreas Raabe, Neurosurgery, Inselspital

In his career, neurosurgeon and clinic director Andreas Raabe has seen major developments in medical technology that open unprecedented possibilities for interventions on the brain and spine. With a keen interest in physics, he develops new technologies for the operating room emerging from practice at Inselspital together with the ARTORG Center.

Interview

Esther Brill, Bern Psychiatry Services

Esther Brill is a PhD student in cognitive neuroscience at the University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern. As a digital native she considers connecting technology and clinical work essential to fight ever more prevalent neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia through computerized cognition games.

Interview

Ana Leni Frei, Pathology, University of Bern

Ana Leni Frei does her PhD in computational pathology on cell interactions in rectal cancer. She hopes to help build AI tools that can assist pathologists to understand changes that occur in the tumor microenvironments of patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and hopefully understand why 20% of them do not respond to the therapy.

Video

1 Year CAIM

CAIM celebrates its first anniversary with this retrospective by Director Raphael Sznitman on the milestones achieved.

Thank you to the many brilliant minds from different disciplines, all driven by the same vision to innovate future therapeutic approaches here in Bern!

Watch the video...

Interview

Tanja Birrenbach, Emergency Medicine, Inselspital

Tanja Birrenbach is an emergency physician at the Inselspital, a training coordinator for emergency teams and a researcher. She heads the Virtual Reality Insel Simulation Lab and investigates VR and mixed reality in education and further training at the Inselspital and the University of Bern Emergency Telemedicine.

Interview

Maxime Baud, Neurology, Inselspital

Maxime Baud is an epileptologist leading presurgical investigations at the University Hospital of Bern. As head of a research group on the mechanisms of epilepsy he plans to forecast days at higher risk for seizures. He also contributes to developing next-generation devices for neurology with the Wyss Center for bio- and neuroengineering in Geneva.

Interview & Video

Serife Seda Kucur, ARTORG Center, University of Bern

Serife Seda Kucur specializes on using AI technology to revolutionize glaucoma care across the world. Via her startup PeriVision, she wants to improve monitoring of the eye condition that leads to blindness. Her technology solution is housed in commonly available VR goggles.

Interview

Mihai Petrovici, Physiology, University of Bern

"Neurons have the ability to look into the future", says Mihai Petrovici, who develops AI systems for neuromorphic chips and contributes to the Human Brain Project. With his team has developed a new theory to explain rapid and efficient signal transmission in the brain in spite of slow neurons.

Interview

Claudio Bassetti, University of Bern & Inselspital

The Corona pandemic has made us more aware of the importance of digitalization in medicine, says Claudio Bassetti, Dean of the University of Bern Medical Faculty. He sees opportunities for better patient care through AI technology and gives an example from his specialty neurology.

Researcher Portrait

Claus Beisbart, Philosophy, University of Bern

What is explainable AI and how can it help us to trust machine learning applications? Claus Beisbart is a Philosopher of Science and a Physicist. As part of the CAIM Embedded Ethics Lab he provide support to researchers to be aware of and tackle the ethical challenges raised by AI.

Interview

Rouven Porz, Medical Ethics, Inselspital

Why do I trust my smartphone but not AI with my health? Rouven Porz is medical ethicist at the Inselspital, Insel Gruppe. He promotes ethical discussion about the challenges and opportunities of AI in healthcare at the CAIM Embedded Ethics Lab.

Researcher Portrait

Kuangyu Shi, Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital

For Prof. Kuangyu Shi, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Translational Theranostics, AI is teamwork between computer scientists and clinicians. In this portrait, he takes us on a journey into Deep Learning for computer-aided diagnosis and for radionuclide therapy optimization Bern’s University Hospital.

Researcher Portrait

Stefan Klöppel, Bern University Psychiatry Services

Meet Prof. Dr.med. Stefan Klöppel, Head of the University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. He sees potential in sensor technologies to improve the care of psychiatric in-patients. In this context, he has started a collaboration with the ARTORG Center, University of Bern.

Interview

Raphael Sznitman, ARTORG Center, University of Bern

On the eve of the CAIM Opening, CAIM Director Prof. Raphael Sznitman, who heads the AI in Medical Imaging lab at thee ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, tells us why he chases sparks and grit to make AI succeed in healthcare.