The Berlin Model: Education for Post-Professional Activities (BANA) is an innovative continuing education program for individuals aged 45 and over, providing access to current scientific knowledge. The BANA lecture series at the Technische Universität Berlin is open to the public and addresses contemporary and socially relevant issues. The format encourages dialogue with civil society and allows participants to engage with the lecturers after each talk – through questions, suggestions, or comments. This semester’s lecture series is being organized and conducted in cooperation with researchers from the ECDF.
1. Lecture:
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges
Teaser
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing medicine, with numerous scientifically validated applications already demonstrating significant improvements in diagnostics. However, despite these successes, only a few AI systems have become firmly established in everyday clinical practice. Why is the implementation into routine medical care still so rare? What barriers – from data protection and technical integration to acceptance among healthcare professionals and patients – stand in the way of widespread adoption? In her talk, Hanna G. Zimmermann provides insights into current AI applications in healthcare, highlights future potential, and discusses which factors may be critical for the sustainable integration of AI in the medical field.
Hanna G. Zimmermann has been Junior Professor for “Applied Research of the Visual System” at the ECDF since June 2022. She works at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, where she leads the research group “Interdisciplinary Retina Research”. After studying Physical Engineering with a focus on Medical Physics at the Berliner Hochschule für Technik, she earned her PhD at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where she established retinal imaging as a biomarker for multiple sclerosis. Together with her team, she explores how digital analysis of the retina can contribute to improved diagnosis and prognosis of neurological and vascular diseases.
2. Lecture:
Better Team Decisions? How Human – AI Collaboration can Improve Healthcare
Teaser
Artificial Intelligence (AI) only becomes beneficial when it is embedded as a responsibly designed tool into work processes, supports decision-making, and maintains clear responsibilities. In Claudia Müller-Birn's presentation, the focus lies on how a consistently human-centered design can strengthen human-AI collaboration in healthcare, thereby leading to better decisions and greater acceptance. Using empirical studies, it is explained how reflective prompts can support privacy-compliant data donations and how visualizations of uncertainties –combined with targeted decision aids –can improve diagnostic decisions. Finally, it is demonstrated how participatory approaches can lead to novel areas of application for AI –guided by the values and needs of the users.
Since 2019, Claudia Müller-Birn has led the “Human-Centered Computing” research group at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2025, she is also associate researcher at the ECDF. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Feodor Lynen Fellowship). In her research, she develops and evaluates interaction concepts that integrate AI applications in healthcare, specifically in clinical workflows, and support decisions in a transparent and understandable way. Together with her team, she investigates when automation is helpful, where targeted ‘friction’ can lead to more deliberate decisions, and which decision aids best convey uncertainty. Using participatory methods, AI systems are developed that are guided by the values and needs of their users.
Venue:
Online Lecture Series – You can access the digital lecture hall here: tu-berlin.zoom.us/j/61413980952
Meeting-ID: 614 1398 0952
Password: 012309
The lectures will take place on November 18, 2025, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Participation is free of charge and no registration is required.