SEMECO

We help to shape the future.

Working together to increase the speed of innovation in the development of secure and efficient medical technology.

The healthcare system is facing major challenges, and technological innovations can make an important contribution to overcoming them. However, innovations in medical technology are often lengthy, complex and heavily regulated - for good reason, after all, people's health is at stake.

In the future, it will be important to connect medical devices more closely and enable them to communicate with the cloud via internet. This will provide valuable data that can be used to optimize processes and products. Shorter innovation cycles for medical technology are necessary in order to bring innovations to patients in a timely manner and enable safe and efficient medical care.

This is precisely the goal of SEMECO.

Two doctors working on a tablet in the OR. — The future of medical technology lies in the combination of improved approval processes, greater security and digital innovation.

What it's all about

Secure Medical Microsystems and Communications" - SEMECO for short - is a network of academic research institutes and companies that has set itself the goal of accelerating the development and approval of medical devices and implants with electronic and digital components and thus promoting the progress of medical technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as secure hardware and software platforms are being developed to enhance the efficiency and safety of medical devices and implants, while also accelerating the approval process. Ultimately, this should benefit the health and well-being of people around the world.

SEMECO was named one of the winners of the Clusters4Future competition organized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. 117 clusters applied in the second round of the competition. Physicians, scientists and experts from industry and research collaborate now to increase the pace of innovation in medical technology and overcome the obstacles impeding innovation in the medical technology industry.

More information on the SEMECO initiative

Who's participating & our role

A diverse community is rising to the challenge posed by SEMECO, and we are very pleased to play an active role on the team.

The Institute of Communication Technology at the Technical University of Dresden – Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering is taking on the research coordination for the project. The Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health is also closely involved. We, the Health Solutions business line at ZEISS Digital Innovation, bring our experience and expertise in the fields of end-to-end implementation of cloud-based, modular platforms, and enablement of connections of complex medical devices. Specifically we contribute in the Q1 subproject "Secure & Trustworthy System Architectures".

In our subproject, we are cooperating intensively with secunet Security Networks AG and Deutsche Telekom MMS GmbH. This lays the foundation for revolutionary, fast and secure cloud-based use cases in medical technology, such as remote device management. In addition, it will be possible to gain insights from the evaluation of diverse data and use them for better patient care and new business models. 

Timeframe – first steps

In the first step, the personnel and organization has been set up and then the composition of the team of experts was planned for the subproject "Secure & Trustworthy System Architectures". The kick-off took place on May 12, 2023. 

Where the teamwork takes place

SEMECO is a predominantly regional initiative where partners from medicine, research and business bundle their competencies so that leading digital innovations in medical technology can be made available more quickly. Saxony, with Dresden as main hub, is one of the leading European locations in academia and industry for microelectronics, communication technology and artificial intelligence. Thus, ideal conditions for collaborating in the SEMECO future cluster.

What is the current status?

After extensive research to identify innovation potential, work began on initial components for the future platform in January 2023. So far, intensive research has been conducted on data anonymization to explore the possibilities for anonymizing DICOM and FHIR datasets. Our market research revealed that there is great potential in this area, as it is often difficult to ensure data quality during anonymization. Currently, we are working on an innovative concept that uses novel anonymization algorithms to improve data quality compared to comparable anonymization solutions while simultaneously ensuring patient data protection and privacy. The goal is to enable high-quality anonymization that ensures the protection of sensitive data in medical research. Our approach is currently focused on developing the functionality and making it available as a library or service, enabling developers to integrate it into health and medical research applications. The current focus is on the anonymization of DICOM datasets. Work is also being done to investigate the anonymization of FHIR datasets in the future and to expand the functionality accordingly.

Additionally, we have identified components for an effective connection of medical devices based on current connectivity standards such as Service-oriented Device Connectivity (SDC) to local and cloud infrastructures as further innovation potential. Research is currently being conducted on SDC components that can be integrated into device software or hosted on gateways. The SDC interface is a modern standard aimed at improving the interoperability of medical devices. There are already some SDC-enabled devices. With our abstracted components, we aim to enable other companies to use modern connectivity solutions for their products. The SDC component of the SEMECO platform presents a promising concept for improving collaboration and data exchange between medical devices, especially from different manufacturers. Initial progress has been made, including the development of concepts, technology presentations, and the identification of use cases. The research work in this context is being continuously pursued to optimize the SDC component and test deployment scenarios.

In addition to working on concrete components, initial specific use cases have also been identified in the joint projects of the consortium that are developing innovative medical products. For example, in the project, we are currently considering a home monitoring use case where diagnostic data from a smart device is to be derived to the future SEMECO cloud platform. We are designing the secure infrastructure and associated software components with the latest technologies to ensure data security.

What are the next steps?

The work on the concepts for the mentioned components and their implementation into initial functional models will be continuously pursued. Subsequently, initial pilots are planned to test the functionality of the components. The analysis and conceptualization of components for the currently considered and additional use cases of the application projects will also be continued.

Further information on this will be provided soon.