Research

Funding code: 01GP2207 (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF))

Total funding amount: EUR 803,656

Funding period: 2023–2026

Project leader: Prof. Dr Georg Marckmann

Research assistant: Andreas Wolkenstein

What constitutes a good decision in medicine? The concept of shared decision-making (SDM) states that patients should be enabled to make decisions together with their doctor according to their own preferences. With the increasing research and use of algorithms in society and medicine, the question arises as to whether and how these can be integrated into the decision-making process. And how does the role of algorithms influence the interaction between doctors and patients? The EPAMed project is investigating what algorithm-supported decision-making in medicine should look like in order to respect ethical requirements and patient preferences. To this end, the research project is analysing both the necessary ethical implications and the possibilities for implementation in clinical practice. Through cooperation with the Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology (IBE) as a project partner and in collaboration with patients and clinicians, practical guidelines and recommendations for doctors, programmers and policy makers are being developed.

Funding code: 01KU2201 (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF))

Total funding amount: EUR 297,834

Funding period: 2023–2026

Project leader: Prof. Dr Georg Marckmann

Research assistant: Dr. Stephanie Müller

The term ‘neurodevelopmental disorder’ (NDD) covers a whole range of clinical pictures whose symptoms usually appear very early in childhood and have lifelong consequences. They include sensorimotor, cognitive and communicative impairments as well as learning and behavioural disorders. Examples of NDDs include infantile cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Despite much progress in NDD research, a major difficulty in treatment is that diagnosis often comes late. In the TECH-TOYS project, researchers from Italy, France, Turkey and Germany are working together to find a solution to this problem. The aim is to develop a diagnostic tool for the early detection of NDDs. To this end, a play environment equipped with sensors is being developed, whose data will be evaluated with the help of AI for motor and communicative abnormalities. The accompanying ethics project is investigating the ethical implications of TECH-TOY technology and developing ethical recommendations for its use in a research context and subsequent application in a therapeutic setting.

Founding organisation: Verein zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Forschung (WiFoMed) an der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München e.V.

Founding period: 2026–2027

Founding amount: 12.700€

Principal investigator: Dr. phil. Anna Hirsch

Team member: Sofia Schwarz

The World Health Organization identifies childhood obesity as one of the major global health challenges and points to alarming trends since the COVID-19 pandemic. Obesity can lead to health problems that often become apparent later in life, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnoea. In addition, children with obesity are more frequently affected by bullying, social exclusion, and body shaming, which can have a negative impact on their mental health. However, obesity does not only affect health-related aspects of children’s well-being; it may also have consequences for other areas of life, such as schooling, friendships, leisure activities, and identity development.
This project explores the question of what beneficence-based obligations we have towards children with obesity. It is grounded in a comprehensive understanding of child well-being that draws on both empirical research and analytical-conceptual considerations. The project examines to what extent such an understanding of child well-being can provide guidance in complex treatment decisions in cases of childhood obesity. The overarching aim of the research project is to place the well-being of children more centrally in public debates on childhood obesity as well as in individual treatment decisions, while also giving sufficient space to the subjective perspectives of affected children. The project seeks to make visible that addressing and treating childhood obesity typically involves far more than health- and weight-related aspects alone.

Funding organisation: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Project number: 566343405

Funding period: 2026–2029

Funding amount: 365.811€

Principal investigator: Dr. phil. Anna Hirsch

Team member:

In paediatric decision-making a variety of different ethical conflicts occur, many of which are distinct from those in adult medicine. Conflicts arise between the interests and values of the parties involved, between different ethical obligations (towards the child, the parents, other patients, etc.), and between different interpretations of child well-being. It is still not sufficiently clear how the different – and often conflicting – perspectives, interests, and ethical obligations should be balanced. Current debates, including those on gender reassignment therapies and the vaccination of children, emphasise the importance of this topic. Even though it is highlighted as one of the central issues in paediatric ethics, many questions have not yet been answered satisfactorily. The project’s aim is to develop a balancing framework that can provide guidance in cases of conflicting interests and obligations, for example by specifying the relative weight of different perspectives on child well-being, the evolving autonomy of the child and parents’ decision-making authority.

For further information see: Link DFG gepris

For further information see: Link DFG gepris

Director: PD Dr Mathias Witt

Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG) – Project number 386999510

Project collaborator: Dr Irene Cala

The project aims to produce a critical scholarly edition of books 10 and 14 of the early Byzantine medical compendium (lógoi iatrikoí, Libri medicinales) by Aëtios of Amida (6th century AD) based on all known manuscripts, thereby closing the last major editorial gap in the literature on ancient medicine. The edition will also be made accessible to a wider readership through a German translation and a philological and medical-historical commentary. In addition, a new editorial approach will be adopted for the edition of Byzantine compilations, ensuring maximum user-friendliness for researchers: For the first time, in addition to the actual edition, an additional concordance volume will be created in which the Aëtios text and the source texts excerpted by Aëtios (insofar as they have been preserved) will be compared synoptically in their original wording. Deviations in the texts are marked in the text synopsis using a system of graphic markings, so that users can immediately see which passages Aëtios has shortened, modified or reworded. Aëtios's excerpting technique is thus systematically visualised and prepared for further analysis, which will also be useful for philology and the history of ideas. In this way, the last early Byzantine medical texts still unpublished in the Greek original are to be made accessible to a broad research audience (classical philologists, medical historians, pharmacy historians, science historians, Byzantinists, cultural scientists) through a critical text edition.

For further information see: Link DFG gepris