AGENDA

October 13th

SENovation Styria 2026 – HEALTHY AGING

Moderation: Victoria McGuigan, Amsterdam

09:00 WELCOME Andrea Kurz, Rector of the Medical University of Graz

INTRO Sophie Narath, Medical University of Graz

Session 1: Digital Inclusion

09:10 IMPULS: Digital Inclusion, examples Siemens Healthineers – Kerstin Roese, Siemens (Munich)

Panel discussion

Sybille Reidl (Joanneum Research Policies, Vienna)
Oliver Wimmer (Herzens App, Graz)
Frank Leyhausen (reifegrad4, Köln)

Session 2: Health in the age of intelligence

10:15 IMPULS: Health in the age of intelligence and connected home care with smart technology – Barbara Koop, Philips (Eindhoven)

Panel discussion

Michael Rathmair (Joanneum Research Robotics, Klagenfurt)
Lars Kamolz (Medical University of Graz)
Stefan Arbeithuber (PAULA Lino Solutions, Linz)
Wolfgang Kratky, Rosemarie Kurz (Geriatrische Gesundheitszentren, Graz)
Jakob Tettmann, Oskar Kohlenprath (Remembria, Graz)

15 min Coffee break

Session 3: Where good medicine goes wrong

11:15 IMPULS: Medical devices failed older users: practical usability and consequences: Where good medicine goes wrong – Ben Anyasodo (London)

Panel discussion

Thomas Pieber (Medical University of Graz)
Bente Knoll (Office for sustainable consequence, Vienna)
Michael Pichler (Human.Technology.Styria, Graz)
Franziska Rauch (Yorokani Magnetkleidung, Vienna)

12:25 – 14:00 Lunch break

Session 4: Aging & AI, usabiliy meets science

14:00 IMPULS: When AI Can’t See You: Designing Ethical & Inclusive Health AI for Everyone – Lizette Spangenberg (Johannesburg)

14:20 IMPULS: Comprehensive Phenotyping in aging – Thomas Scherer, Medical University of Vienna (Vienna)

14:40 Open Discussion + Q&A

10 min Coffee break

Session 5: AI as a medical device & user errors

15:00 IMPULS: The challenges of AI as a medical device. How do we design for systems where a user error has life-altering consequences? – Mariana de Oliveira (Lisbon)

15:20 IMPULS: Infineon microelectronics for connected care and healthy aging – Elisabeth Hengge & Marcus Hennecke, Infineon (Graz)

15:40 Open Discussion + Q&A

10 min Coffee break

Session 6: Age inclusive AI discovery – chances and pitfalls

16:00 IMPULS: AI chances and pitfalls – a critical view from basic research – Thomas Pock – BioTechMed (TU Graz)

16:20 IMPULS: Practical strategies for age inclusive AI discovery – Kausik Surendran, Schneider Electric (Bengaluru)

16:40 Open Discussion + Q&A

16:50 Age Forward Lab Graz Key Summary, Robert Eysold – Age Bombs (Berlin)

Afternoon 2 pm – 4:30 pm

Parallel Workshop AGE BOMBS by Robert Eysoldt (Berlin)

14:00 – 16:30 Sustainable in the future: Unsorted & Connected

As part of Graz Connects, the Age Forward Lab Graz is focusing on age diversity and the question of how cooperation and coexistence across different stages of life can be made sustainable in the future under the title Unsorted & Connected.

Closing: Sophie Narath, Medical University of Graz

October 14th

DAY 2: Critical Operations in healthcare

Moderation: Victoria McGuigan, Amsterdam

in cooperation with Critical Operations Forum

09:00 WELCOME Alexander Rosenkranz, Vicerector of Medical University of Graz

INTRO Sophie Narath, Medical University of Graz

Welcome

We are opening the day together with Critical Operations Forum,  partly sharing sessions and a common stage. Expect firsthand insights into critical operations across medical environments as well as other critical operational domains.

09:15 KEYNOTE: Human-Centered Resilience: Bridging disaster health innovation and critical
operations for an uncertain future, Sevan Gerard – Disaster Health Institute (Salzburg) & Paul Barach – Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia)

This talk frames the keynote around Disaster Health and preparedness and human-centered resilience as the unifying bridge between medical innovation and critical operations in healthcare and other high-risk industries. It argues that, whether in hospitals or other high-reliability systems, performance, safety, and sustainability depend on designing technology, workflows, and organizations around real human capabilities under stress—aligned with how workers, staff, and healthcare professionals make sense of situations and stay engaged. Recent disasters in Portugal, Switzerland, the USA, and Spain, even as a small sample, point to core systemic deficiencies that will not be addressed by technological advances alone.

30 min Coffee break

Session 1: Medical support to disaster operations

10:30 – 11:00 IMPULS: Sohrab Dalal – WHO, OECD (London)

Panel discussion

Gregor Egger (Disaster Health Institute, Salzburg)
Magdalena Druml (NoxAvis TECH SOLUTIONS, Vienna)
Lars Kamolz (Medical University of Graz)
Philipp Zoidl (Medical University of Graz)
Markus Bergen (Joanneum Research Digital, Graz)
Florian Wichlas (Paracelsus Medical Private University Salzburg)

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

Session 2: CBRN preparedness: between routine operations and states of emergency

14:00 IMPULS: t.b.a.

Panel discussion

Christian Resch (Disaster Competence Network Austria, Graz, Federal Ministry of the Defence, Vienna)
Caroline Schober (RCPE, Graz)
Julia Kircher, Kurt Zatloukal (Medical University of Graz)

15 min Coffee break

Performance & civil population

in cooperation with Critical Operations Forum

15:15 IMPULS: Your team won’t perform in a real crisis? This training closes the gap.

Bernhard Kowalski, Michael Georg Grasser – KAGes (Graz)

What if teamwork training changed behavior when it matters most? A European multigold medalist in prehospital emergency medicine and a long-standing executive in critical infrastructure and winner of a cybersecurity award demonstrate practical, evidence-informed methods to train teams for real transfer – so that they can maintain their performance in critical, high-risk moments. The methods are unconventional, and not what you would expect.

15:50 IMPULS: Training, Simulation, Resilience – How to learn from pros and scale it up to population

Christian Resch – (Disaster Competence Network Austria, Graz, Federal Ministry of the Defence, Vienna)

Panel discussion

Lukas Swittalek (Austrian Armed Forces, Vienna)
Josef Farda (Civil Protection Associations Austria, Vienna)
Maximilian Hanke (Federal Ministry of the Interior, Vienna)
Bernhard Kowlaski (KAGes, Graz)

16:50 FAREWELL: A look back and a look ahead – Sophie Narath, Medical University of Graz