NaMeKI

Research Background

Demographic change, growing demand for nursing care and healthcare services, and an increasing shortage of skilled professionals pose significant challenges to healthcare provision. Technological innovations, particularly AI-based assistive systems and robotic assistance systems, can help support nursing care and therapeutic processes in meaningful ways. Whether and under what conditions these technologies actually offer added value depends not only on their technical capabilities but also on how they are embedded in social, ethical and practical contexts. Questions of trust, privacy, responsibility and ethical acceptability are particularly important in determining whether human–AI collaboration can be made sustainable. NaMeKI therefore adopts an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together technical, ethical, psychological and social science perspectives to develop human-centred and ethically responsible forms of human–AI collaboration in nursing care and healthcare.

Research Topics

NaMeKI investigates collaboration between people in need of care, professional caregivers and AI-based assistive systems as a complex sociotechnical system. The consortium brings together research questions from computer science, robotics, psychology, design, nursing science and medical ethics. Its aim is to develop technical solutions that combine strong functional performance with safety, trustworthiness and human-centred design.

The joint subproject of University Medical Center Göttingen (Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine) and the University of Göttingen (Institute of Computer Science) investigates ethical and privacy-preserving interactions with the robot. Privacy concerns are among the most common reasons for reservations about robotic assistance systems, yet their causes and effects remain insufficiently understood. Empirical case studies therefore explore the perspectives of patients, professional caregivers and family members. Building on these findings, technical solutions, such as user interfaces that enhance transparency and privacy-preserving interaction concepts, are designed and evaluated through a participatory and iterative development process. Particular attention is paid to different contexts of use and the diversity of the groups involved.

Research Aims

• Develop scientific foundations for sustainable and human-centred human–AI collaboration in nursing care and healthcare.
• Investigate the importance of trust, trustworthiness, privacy and transparency for the use of AI-based assistive systems.
• Conduct qualitative interviews with professional caregivers and clients or patients in older people’s care to explore attitudes, experiences and privacy concerns regarding robotic assistance systems.
• Identify empirical factors influencing trust, privacy and the ethical acceptability of robotic assistance systems.
• Develop and evaluate interaction concepts that enhance transparency and preserve privacy through a participatory and iterative development process.
• Develop ethical frameworks and practical recommendations for research, technology development and the responsible implementation of AI systems in healthcare.

Results / Outreach

• World Congress of Bioethics (8 July 2026, Johannesburg): “Ethical Orientation through Systematics: A Care Robot Matrix and Typology of Trust and Trustworthiness”. Talk by Christian Loos. The presentation introduced a systematic framework for the ethical assessment of robotic assistance systems in nursing care.
• 11th lecture in the NaMeKI research network’s lecture series (30 June 2026, University Medical Center Göttingen): “Ethics of Digitalisation and AI in Healthcare”. Joint lecture by Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz and Christian Loos.
• Care Ethics Congress 2026 (25–27 February 2026, University Medical Center Göttingen): “Ethical Orientation through Systematics: A Care Robot Matrix and Typology of Trust and Trustworthiness”. Pre-congress workshop designed and led by Christian Loos.
• Care Ethics Congress 2026: “Safety and Trustworthiness of Robotic Assistance Systems in Nursing Care – Ethical Principles from an Interdisciplinary Perspective”. Presentation of an interdisciplinary poster by Tobias Geger, Erik Loff, Ole Grams, Mona Hichert, Christian Loos and Kim Schreiber.
• Night of Science (21 June 2025, University Medical Center Göttingen): “The Future of Human–Robot Interaction with PRIVATAR and NaMeKI”. Panel discussion moderated by Christian Loos, with Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz and Prof. Dr. Delphine Reinhardt.
• Ongoing knowledge transfer: Interdisciplinary courses, workshops and academic talks to promote exchange between computer science, robotics, medical ethics and healthcare.