New professor for digital health at HPI

The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) is expanding its professorial staff and strengthening the field of digital health: Prof. Dr. med. Katarina Braune will start on October 1 with her research area "Digital Health Non-Communicable Diseases" at the joint Digital Engineering Faculty of the HPI and the University of Potsdam.

 

Prof. Braune is a pediatrician, diabetologist, and board-certified medical informatician. In her work, she combines medical, technological, and societal perspectives to develop digital solutions for chronic, non-communicable diseases—especially diabetes mellitus. Previously, she researched and taught at Charité—University Medicine Berlin, among other institutions, and has helped shape international initiatives that set standards in the care of chronic diseases. 

At the same time, she has lived with type 1 diabetes since childhood and has long been active in the international diabetes online community. This personal experience shapes her research and her goal of developing digital health solutions that are closely aligned with the needs of those affected. "Digital health must reclaim its purpose: to serve people, not systems. I want to design technologies that restore autonomy, compassion, and context to care – especially for those overlooked by industrial healthcare," says Prof. Braune. 

At HPI, she and her interdisciplinary team will advance practice-oriented research and teaching. Their focus areas include AI-supported assistance systems, personalized therapies, and open data platforms. The goal is to close gaps in care and make digital innovations accessible worldwide. Chronic, non-communicable diseases are one of the greatest challenges to global health. They cause around 70 percent of all deaths worldwide. Digital technologies offer the opportunity to significantly improve prevention, early detection, and treatment. The prerequisite: these technologies must be fair, understandable, and usable by everyone. Prof. Braune's research is dedicated to the development and evaluation of such digital approaches. 

With the appointment of Prof. Katarina Braune to the professorship, the Hasso Plattner Institute continues its academic growth. In addition, the institute's Digital Health Cluster will soon be expanded to include another professorship.

 

 

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