Zurich Children's Hospital launches AI pilot project with four partners

The University Children's Hospital Zurich is the largest center for pediatrics and pediatric surgery in Switzerland and one of the leading centers worldwide. It treats and cares for children and adolescents, supports them in their development and looks after them together with their families. The approximately 2600 dedicated employees work together on an interdisciplinary and interprofessional basis, conduct research and use state-of-the-art technologies and methods.

Noticeably improve processes

Artificial intelligence is now increasingly coming into play. As part of Cisco's Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, everyday clinical practice was initially analysed in close collaboration with the Zurich Children's Hospital: Where can artificial intelligence specifically help to improve the quality of treatment and relieve the burden on specialist staff? A total of 15 possible use cases were analyzed and given an expected return on investment (ROI). Five of these cases were presented to a panel of experts. From these, the most promising use case «AI report» was selected for the pilot project, which focuses on the following functions:

• Automated creation of medical reports from structured and unstructured data
• AI-supported summary of medical history to reduce errors and time expenditure
• Speech-to-text systems that document medical consultations and pre-formulate reports

These functions aim to reduce the administrative burden so that medical staff can focus more on direct patient care. «With this initiative, we are bringing together leading technology partners, clinical expertise and Swiss innovative strength. Together, we are creating the basis for the safe and sustainable use of AI in the healthcare sector,» says Garif Yalak, member of the Cisco Switzerland Executive Board and responsible for Cisco's co-innovation and investment program CDA in Switzerland.

Matthias Bryner, CIO of Zurich Children's Hospital, adds: «We see the potential in AI to noticeably improve processes - while always focusing on the added value for people. The collaboration with Cisco, Zühlke, NetCloud and 44ai is helping us to make decisive progress.»

Pilot project with prospects for the entire Swiss healthcare system

The platform will be designed from the outset as a transferable model with a secure, scalable and interoperable AI infrastructure. The project will be launched as a pilot at Zurich Children's Hospital, with the aim of making the platform available to other hospitals in Switzerland in the future. Technologically, the AI platform will be based on Cisco infrastructure - including systems such as Cisco UCS X-Series, an IT solution that combines compute, network and storage. The solution will be operated on the Zurich Children's Hospital's own infrastructure (on-premise), with strategic support from Zühlke and operational support from Netcloud. 44ai provides the software platform.

Andi Fischer, Sales Manager, Netcloud AG: «Innovative AI use cases require a new generation of data center and platform infrastructures. It is crucial that data is transported and processed with extremely high performance. With our Netcloud Managed Service, we ensure maximum availability and future orientation. » Jannis Schönleber, CEO 44ai, adds: «Our goal is measurable benefits at the patient's bedside. With our Haidy solution, we enable automated medical reports and better data quality - auditable, interoperable and clinic-ready.» Bardia Zanganeh, Healthcare Director at Zühlke, continues: «With this initiative, we are reaffirming our commitment to actively shaping digitalization in the healthcare sector. Based on the LLM-native ZenAI platform developed by Zühlke, AI use cases can be implemented in both operational and clinical settings in a scalable manner - while always maintaining complete operational and data sovereignty.»

As part of Cisco's global «Country Digital Acceleration» (CDA) program, the five partners are pooling their expertise and cooperating on the development of a digital AI platform that improves everyday clinical practice and processes while meeting the highest standards of data protection and information security. The joint intention was sealed in August 2025 with the signing of a «Letter of Intent».

Source: Cisco