The healthcare system lacks knowledge about women's diseases and how to treat them. A new collaboration between the Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI), engineers from DTU, and doctors from Amager and Hvidovre Hospital will accelerate research into women's health. The research will be conducted within the framework of the Technical University Hospital of Greater Copenhagen (TUH).
"We have one of the world's largest and most unique data sets on women's health—and now, with Gefion's computing power, we are ready to exploit its full potential," says David Westergaard, associate professor at DTU and head of Data Science at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Amager and Hvidovre Hospital, which is part of TUH.
Women's health is a complex field of research
With access to Gefion's AI capabilities, researchers can perform large-scale analyses of data with multiple layers of information, such as diagnostic imaging, genetic analyses, studies of protein composition in cells, biobank samples, and clinical patient records collected over decades.
The vast amount of data comes from studies of women's menstrual cycles, changes in gut bacteria, infertility, pregnancy complications, endometriosis and adenomyosis, conditions in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows inside or outside the uterus, affecting millions of women worldwide but still poorly understood.
"Women's health is an incredibly complex field of research because it is so dynamic and has historically been poorly understood. We are dealing with constantly changing hormonal states and physiological changes that most medical researchers have either ignored or treated as noise to be filtered out, rather than fundamental biology to be understood," explains Westergaard, continuing.
"Gefion allows us to move from analyzing individual data sets to integrating them in new ways—by running sophisticated models that would otherwise take days or weeks in just a few minutes."
David Westergaard and the researchers at Amager and Hvidovre Hospital are already busy loading data from 10,000-15,000 women who have participated in various projects at Amager and Hvidovre Hospital's Gynecology and Obstetrics Department between 2019 and 2025.
Engineers contribute new insights into biological mechanisms
Karina Banasik, associate professor at DTU and head of basic research at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, Amager and Hvidovre Hospital, adds that the fact that the researchers work at the hospital is of great importance.
"Collaboration in a hospital-based research environment creates a synergy where clinical insight meets data-driven expertise. This gives us a new understanding of the biological mechanisms at play: how the underlying biology works and, thus, how we can better prevent, diagnose, and treat various conditions in the future," says Karina Banasik.
Supercomputer reduces knowledge gap on women's diseases
Professor Henriette Svarre Nielsen, senior physician at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Amager and Hvidovre Hospital and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Copenhagen, leads the research projects' use of the Gefion supercomputer. She confirms that women have been excluded from clinical trials for decades and that much of the existing knowledge about biology and medicine is based on men and male mouse models.
"This means that in 2025, we will still lack fundamental knowledge about the female body's functions and responses to treatment—but that is precisely what we are now changing with the help of Gefion," says Henriette Svarre Nielsen.
According to DCAI CEO Nadia Carlsten, research into women's health and diseases is in line with the center's objectives of providing advanced AI infrastructure to researchers tackling complex health challenges.
"We are proud to support this talented team in their mission to close the knowledge gap in women's health and deliver research that has a direct impact on millions of people," says Nadia Carlsten.
"The Gefion supercomputer is not only designed to handle demanding AI calculations, it has also been developed with a special focus on data sovereignty. This means that users have full control over their data and can store and analyze it in a secure environment under Danish law," explains Nadia Carlsten.
The research is supported by the Ole Kirk Foundation, the A.P. Møller Foundation, the BioInnovation Institute, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
