Meet SynHealth partner University of Maribor

Meet consortium partner University of Maribor, one of the 6 partners that form SynHealth’s consortium. Based in Slovenia, is an educational and research institution that strives for academic excellence and the expansion of knowledge through basic and applied research. 

University of Maribor - Faculty of Health and Science

The University of Maribor (UM)

With more than 1200 educators and researchers, the University of Maribor cooperates with business partners, civil society, public administration, and other institutions, thus promoting research and the arts focused on the welfare and development of society. UM maintains an active presence in the international education and research arena, taking numerous European projects either as a leader coordinator or collaborative partner. 

 

UM Faculty of Health Sciences (UM FHS

It was established in 1993. UM FHS embraces the latest technology, innovation, creativity, and interactivity to achieve student competencies. The main goal is to achieve a holistic approach to patient care. UM FHS offers several study programmes, such as an undergraduate 1st degree study programme in Nursing Care, and postgraduate 2nd degree study programmes in Nursing Care, Management in Health and Social Organisations, and postgraduate 3rd degree study programme in Nursing Care. 

UM FHS offers students the latest in information communication technology, as well as access to a modern simulation centre. It is an innovative learning environment equipped with modern technology and facilities that enable realistic simulation of various clinical scenarios. We also integrate VR/AR into student learning. Through excellence in education, research, and international collaboration with many prestigious universities and institutions, UM FHS has gained national and international recognition. 

UM FHS actively cooperates with other universities in the field of education and health institutions at the national and international levels. FHS has taken part in numerous Erasmus+ projects. It is also involved as a partner in EU4Health projects.  

FHS researchers have experience and expertise in the practical application of transparent machine learning models. In June 2023, UM FHS hosted the esteemed Artificial Intelligence in Medicine in Europe (AIME) conference. The AIME conference is a premiere event in the field of artificial intelligence and its intersection with healthcare and medicine.

Meet the team!

Gregor Štiglic

Gregor Štiglic is a Professor and Head of the Research Institute at the University of Maribor Faculty of Health Science. Since 2014, he has been working as the Vice Dean for Research at the same faculty, where he coordinates research work of various research groups.

He has led and worked on numerous research projects in digital healthcare and the application of artificial intelligence in various healthcare fields since 2003. As a visiting researcher, he worked at the Center for Data Analysis and Biomedical Analytics (Temple University, 2012), Stanford Center for Biomedical Research (Stanford University, 2013) and the Usher Institute (University of Edinburgh, 2019).

He is a board member of the Artificial Intelligence and Medicine in Europe (AIME) association, the Slovenian Society for Medical Informatics (SDMI), and the Slovenian AI Society (SLAIS). Gregor is also a member of the ELLIS Society (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) and Honorary Fellow at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh.

Gregor serves as Associate Editor at Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Elsevier) and Big Data (Mary Ann Liebert) journals, as well as an editorial board member at BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (Nature Springer), PloS ONE (Public Library of Science), Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research (Nature Springer) and BMC Digital Health (Nature Springer).

 

Leon Kopitar

Leon Kopitar is a senior researcher at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences, while concurrently pursuing his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research primarily focuses on the utilization of generative artificial intelligence for personalized treatment in inpatient clinical settings, with a particular emphasis on personalized meal planning.

Leon has actively contributed to international projects such as “Improving interpretability and performance of risk prediction models for decision support in clinical environments” (ARRS FWO), and “Innovative didactic technologies for human and environmental health” (InTECHiE -NextGenerationEU).

 

Lucija Gosak

Assistant and researcher at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lucija Gosak is also a PhD student in Nursing Care. She is currently working on integrating mobile health applications into the care of patients with chronic diseases.

Her work also covers statistical analysis of data and artificial intelligence in nursing. She has been actively involved in international projects: Erasmus+ project T4H and Digital toolbox for innovation in nursing education (I-BOX); Improving interpretability and performance of risk prediction models for decision support in clinical environments (ARRS FWO); EU4Health project The Dynamic Digital Resilience for Medical and Allied Professions in Health Services (DDS-MAP). 

 

Adrijana Svenšek

Assistant and researcher at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Adrijana Svenšek is also a PhD student in Nursing Care. She is currently working on use of the visualisation and varios technologies for lifestyle change in patients’ at risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Her work also covers prevention, chronic diseases, informatic, mobile health and virtual reality in nursing. She also work in projects Innovative Didactic Technologies for Human and Environmental Health.

 

Primož Kocbek

Primož Kocbek is a senior research assistant at University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences and a PhD student of biostatistics at University of Ljubljana. His research interest includes statistical modeling and machine learning techniques with applications in healthcare. His specific areas of interest include temporal data analysis, interpretability of prediction models, advanced machine learning methods on massive datasets, e.g. deep neural networks, Large Language Models.

He actively participated in multiple international projects: Improving interpretability and performance of risk prediction models for decision support in clinical environments (ARRS FWO); EU4Health project The Dynamic Digital Resilience for Medical and Allied Professions in Health Services (DDS-MAP). 

He is an editorial board member of PLoS One (Public Library of Science) and was a reviewer for over 20 scientific journals, such as JAMIA, Communication Medicine, AIIM, JBI. He was the proceedings co-chaired at SIAM 2023, co-chaired XAI-Healthcare workshop at IEEE ICHI 2022 and AIME 2023 and is a program Committee member in multiple conferences, such as AIME, IEEE ICHI, AMIA AS, AMIA CIC, AMIA IS.

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