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09.07.2026 Artificial Intelligence Launch of the “MEDAL” Project - A Platform for Testing Medical AI

© Samuel Scherer
© Samuel Scherer

In 2024, Lukas Findeisen and Anna Müller-Trimbusch struck up a conversation with Lena Maier-Hein at an international conference. She described her idea to develop a global platform for testing medical AI, against the backdrop of two fundamental current problems:

  • First, tests are not tailored to clinically relevant challenges but are instead based on what data is available.
  • Second, there is no neutral body where medical AI can be tested.

Generally, the CZS provides funding through programs and calls for proposals via competitive processes. Individual projects are funded only if they are highly relevant to the professional community and align very well with the foundation’s key focus areas.

After the application was submitted, followed by an external international review and a positive vote by the CZS committees, the moment had finally arrived: The “MEDAL” project had convinced everyone and was accepted for funding. The goal of the project is to develop a particularly challenging yet practically relevant test for evaluating medical imaging AGIs and to provide the associated data. Under the leadership of Lena Maier-Hein, an international panel of experts is being formed for this purpose, comprising clinicians, data scientists, patient advocates, and AI researchers.

At the project’s launch, representatives from the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung visited the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg to meet the project participants and learn more about the collaboration and approach.