Center of Excellence Medical Informatics in Santiago/Chile

Project partners: Dr. S. Haertel, Universidad de Chile, Dr. W. Eckel (Heidelberg Center for Latin America at Heidelberg University)

Cooperations: Faculty of Computer Science, Heilbronn University

Funding: DAAD

Brief description: In 2009, the German government initiated a competitive call for proposals for the establishment of centers of excellence for research and teaching through the so-called Initiative Außenwissenschaftspolitik. This project was successfully established for medical informatics at the Heidelberg Center of Heidelberg University in direct collaboration with the Universidad de Chile in Santiago. Furthermore, the activities on site are planned, coordinated and realized in close cooperation with the responsible expert committees, industrial partners as well as decision-makers for the health care system in the country. As a core task in the academic area, a two-year course of study in medical informatics leading to a master 's degree is offered at UCH; with currently 15 participants, a good level of acceptance has already been achieved. This is done in close coordination with the course in medical informatics successfully established at Heidelberg University together with Heilbronn University. Extensive teaching is being exported by German lecturers; in the coming project phase, the establishment of a double degree program at both participating universities is to be completed. Accompanying offers for academic further education - such as summer schools, Diplomados and PhD courses - are offered in Chile. In addition to the promotion of young academics, there will also be cooperation in the field of research. Joint, forward-looking research projects between Chilean and German colleagues are initiated through funded exchanges of graduates and master's students. This is already taking place, for example, in the fields of bioinformatics, natural language processing and medical care research. In addition to the establishment of the academic teaching program in Chile, a supraregional impact in Latin America is intended. This is already expressed in the participation of foreign students in the master course in Chile, foreign lecturers as well as in the cooperation with thematically similarly oriented academic institutions, for example in Argentina, Uruguay and Peru. After a successful evaluation of the project in 2018, the DAAD has approved a continuation within the framework of a third project phase starting in mid-2019 for five years.

Duration: 2009-2024

Institute staff: N. Benning, H. Dickhaus

The entire DAAD project "Center of Excellence Santiago de Chile - Heidelberg" comprises four subprojects and is administratively coordinated by the International Office. The subprojects concern medical informatics, medical physics, astronomy and geosciences.

The partner institution in Chile for medical informatics is the Universidad de Chile in Santiago with the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering.

Within Chile, the Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA) is responsible for the administrative coordination of the four subprojects at the Chilean universities Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica. In addition, the hospitals Clínica Alemana and Clínica Las Condes are involved as partners.

Organigram of the project (click to enlarge)