Rada Hussein, Principal Investigator at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Prevention, is advancing healthcare with initiatives such as “Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise” and the “European Health Data Space”. Their path to medical progress does not lead through new therapies, but through the definition and harmonization of data standards and protocols. Only through frameworks and interoperability can medical data unfold benefits for patients, public health and companies. Again and again, the Egyptian-born artist has supervised projects in countries that are technically, financially and culturally different from Austria and Germany. Today, the health informatics specialist works with the workgroups in the WHO-ITU and Health Level 7 on the global digital health infrastructure and health data and outed herself as a fan of strict European regulations: “I love the General Data Protection Regulation and the AI Act. I know that U.S. officials see us as pioneers in regulating healthcare.”

She decided on her career aspirations at the age of 13. He didn’t know a name yet, but he did know a role model: Marie Curie. “This wonderful woman has made it possible for us to see organs and anatomy on screens. I saw a TV documentary about her, in which modalities such as MRI and CT scan were also presented.” Her father found his daughter with his mouth open and eyes wide open in front of the TV: “He asked me if I wanted to be a doctor. But I wanted to work on the machine.” She began studying biomedical engineering in Cairo, which combined physics, imaging and image analysis, linking hardware and software. “I worked with the modalities, the machine and at the same time with the images.”

The researcher takes the opportunity to talk about several people who have supported her career. Not those who didn’t think a woman with a hijab could do much. She calls her doctoral supervisor Hans-Peter Meinzer from the University of Heidelberg not only a mentor, but a “second father”. When she applied for the doctoral position in medical imaging in his department, he invited her: “When I first entered his office, he came in the door behind me and spoke to me: Are you Rada? And I said: Yes, very pleased to meet you. Immediately after that, he sent me to register, even before I had given my presentation.” Many years later, she asked the unconventional professor why he had chosen her after the first hello. He said, “I saw in your eyes that you’re going to make it. You’re going to get your PhD and get me working on you.” And so it was. “He took me everywhere, we talked about everything, not only technology, but also culture, personal things and how to be successful. He always said: Germany doesn’t just build cars – you will also be ‘Made in Germany’.” Meinzer was in the habit of giving his students their own names. Rada was “Braveheart” for him.  With her doctoral thesis, the computer scientist built a bridge between the worlds of imaging and text data, which are separated by data standards, in order to link them to electronic health records.

In 2019, the founder and former director of the Biomedical Informatics Center of Excellence in Cairo moved to the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Prevention in Salzburg. Gradually, it focused its programme lines on the European health data space. The research group leader about the Boltzmann Institutes: “We work here in long-term funded research programs instead of project financing. The gap between academia and industry can thus be bridged particularly well. Because we are familiar with the political framework, innovations can be implemented quickly and smoothly.” The Ludwig Boltzmann Society is committed to “science for society”. Rada Hussein focuses on patient rights and data governance, among other things: “Technology and engineering are the ecosystem, but we have to trust them. We work hand in hand with patients for the democratization of health data. Citizens need to know how to benefit from their processing and control their data. We need to know our rights. For example, if companies use data from health apps and fitness trackers and make money, some of the revenue and recognition should flow back to the data sources.”

During her time as director in Cairo, she met Jürgen Gausemeier from the University of Paderborn. “Maybe I was really made in Germany,” jokes Rada Hussein. She talked to the industry consultant about her efforts to simplify the complex ecosystem and he familiarized her with approaches from strategic management and scenario building techniques – and how to use them for innovation management. “I had missed that! Technology alone is simply not enough. You need efficient strategic management tools.” For the past 15 years, Rada Hussein has used toolkits and frameworks, and today she designs them for the WHO global initiative for digital health: “Being a part of it makes me happy. Our work at the LBI enables me to transfer the lessons learned from this to the international infrastructure.”

Global digital health, of course, includes many low- and middle-income countries. Rada Hussein is committed to using their expertise in mobile health for reverse innovation: “I’m building an ecosystem, talking to everyone and dreaming of building a network of networks for meaningful AI use.”  As head of the Work Package in EU-funded projects on Integration and Standards in Health Care: What is her recipe for working in different cultural contexts?  Incorporating interdisciplinarity, cooperation, communication, and existing information to an appropriate extent: You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. “We don’t just need a technology solution, we need a framework on how to implement a regulation and which technology fits. A top-down approach works better here.” And how does it bring people together? “I keep pushing for the idea!”  When she is not pushing for good ideas, Rada enjoys traveling and exploring new countries and cultures by walking in old towns, reading their literature, and shopping for traditional food and souvenirs. In her free time, she likes watching drama series, cinema movies, and playing Sudoku puzzles.

What would Rada Hussein like to pass on to young women at the beginning of their careers? “Believe in yourself and your abilities, work hard and be open to learnings from different disciplines”. Only sometimes does she still see doubts in her eyes, especially when men dominate a team, as is often the case in technology: “When you work hard, they forget after a while that you are a woman.”