The PETRA project builds on solid findings from the GenDiMed project (Gender-Sensitive Digital Medicine), funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). GenDiMed develops digital health applications that systematically capture gender-specific differences and incorporate them into diagnostics and treatment. These evidence-based insights directly inform the development of the PETRA app, ensuring more individualized and effective therapeutic guidance for women in menopause. The BIH is significantly involved through Prof. Dr. Sylvia Thun, Director of the Core Unit eHealth & Interoperability at BIH: “Women in menopause receive medically sound, data-based information. With PETRA, we are developing AI that does not replace but complements healthcare, offering women individualized and secure support.” She adds: “For AI to work reliably in healthcare, it needs high-quality, unbiased, and trustworthy data. That’s exactly where our BIH expertise comes in: medical standards, secure data spaces, and digitally usable evidence.”
Innovative collaboration for better therapy support
The project partners bring together a wide range of expertise. Fraunhofer IESE is responsible for technical development and AI model design. The digital health startup FEMNA contributes its deep knowledge of women’s health care and user experience. The Junior Professorship for Health and E‑Health at Ruhr University Bochum provides social science accompaniment, focusing particularly on co‑creation processes with users. The Social Research Center of the Faculty of Social Sciences at TU Dortmund complements the team with its methodological and analytical capabilities. The BIH ensures the secure integration of medical data in accordance with the highest interoperability standards.
Prof. Sylvia Thun emphasizes: “Interdisciplinary collaboration is our strength: research, technology, health care, and user perspective all come together. Only this way can digital solutions truly reach women in their everyday lives. With PETRA, we are setting a new benchmark in personalized women’s medicine. AI and evidence-based digital medicine make it possible, for the first time, to accompany women through menopause — individually, effectively, and scientifically grounded.”
The BMFTR is funding PETRA with around two million euros over a three‑year period. The project demonstrates how digitalization, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary collaboration can drive tangible progress in women’s medical care setting new standards for personalized women’s health.