SoBigData Magazine Issue 13
Data Pulse – AI Shaping the Future of Health
Welcome to the thirteenth issue of SoBigData Magazine. This edition focuses on Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. In recent years, AI has moved from research labs into clinics and hospitals, where it supports documentation, assists decision-making, and promises more personalised care. These developments also raise difficult questions: how to ensure safety, fairness, privacy, and transparency in practice. Alongside the cover story, we include a SoBigLaws interview with Denise Amram, who offers her perspective on consent, data governance, and the European Health Data Space, key issues for trustworthy medical AI.
Europe is setting a high bar. With the AI Act entering into force in 2025, new medical technologies will be subject to strict requirements, with human oversight and strong protections for fundamental rights. Far from blocking progress, this framework provides a foundation for reliable innovation.
Our cover story, written by Wolfgang Nejdl, explores these issues in depth and invites readers to consider both opportunities and limits. In addition, this issue focuses on the German node of SoBigData, coordinated by the L3S Research Center in Hannover. With expertise in machine learning, natural language processing, and privacy-preserving data access, supported by significant computing resources, it plays a key role in advancing responsible medical AI.
This issue also brings back our regular features: research highlights, industry collaborations, and transnational access experiences. We report on L3S and DAISEC’s work with SMEs, showing how AI is finding concrete applications in crafts and manufacturing. Finally, the diversity and inclusion section presents a case study on gender in advertising, based on a new dataset made available through the SoBigData Research Infrastructure.
We hope the magazine sparks reflection and dialogue. Digital innovation should not only advance science and technology, it must also serve human well-being. Enjoy the read!
Roberto Trasarti