IMAGE Credit: IT infrastructure © Charité | Janine Oswald
“Clé” as a foundation for secure and controlled AI applications
Berlin, September 17, 2026
To enable the rapid and straightforward use of artificial intelligence across all areas in the future, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is launching its own dedicated AI platform for research, teaching, patient care, and administration. This platform is unique among German university hospitals: it enables secure, data-compliant operation under the institution’s own control and offers a variety of models, interfaces, and potential applications. Following a successful pilot phase, access is now being gradually opened to all staff members.
The new AI platform, Clé, is designed as a shared working and development environment for diverse use cases. It integrates multiple interchangeable AI models, a chat interface, capabilities for processing text, images, and PDF documents, and custom knowledge repositories. Researchers and departments can use programming interfaces to integrate these models into their own applications and workflows. Centralized authentication, technical safeguards, and usage logging ensure consistent security standards.
The platform runs on Charité’s own servers and is specifically tailored to the requirements of an academic medical centre. Staff can work with internal documents and work-related information without transmitting them to external providers. Use of the platform is governed by Charité’s data protection and security policies. Technical safeguards, mandatory training, and a phased rollout support responsible usage.
A unique combination for a wide range of applications
This combination represents a solution that is unique among German university hospitals to date. “To the best of our knowledge, Charité is the first university medical centre in Germany to operate its own AI platform—featuring multiple language and image models—entirely on its own infrastructure. This is not merely a pilot project for specific departments, but a comprehensive system serving all areas of patient care, research, teaching, and administration,” says Prof. Alexander Meyer, Head of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Charité and the project’s initiator. He adds: “From the outset, we designed the platform to serve as a foundation for the next stage: via interfaces, departments will soon be able to develop not only their own applications and assistants but also AI agents capable of independently handling multi-step tasks—all without any data leaving Charité.”
“An AI infrastructure that is secure in every respect represents a crucial step forward for the entire Charité, especially given current discussions. It allows us to drive digital transformation and lay the groundwork for future AI-supported processes,” says Prof. Heyo K. Kroemer, CEO of Charité.
Relieving the Daily Workload
In patient care, Clé can assist with clinical-administrative tasks, such as structuring documents and processing information. The goal is to reduce the time spent on routine activities and free up more time for patient care.
However, the platform is explicitly not a medical device. “In its currently approved form, Clé is not intended for making diagnoses or treatment decisions,” emphasizes Alexander Meyer. “Professional responsibility remains with the treating medical staff.” Users must also always critically evaluate the AI’s outputs.
Potential for Research and Teaching
The platform also opens new possibilities for research: staff can, for example, develop their own applications via programming interfaces and conduct secure analyses of large volumes of text and documents. Furthermore, the platform itself becomes a subject of research: under controlled conditions, it is possible to investigate how language models can be used safely and effectively in medicine.
There are also many potential applications in teaching—for instance, in the preparation of educational materials. In administration, the new tools can be used for knowledge databases, automated translations, or form processing, as well as in revenue and personnel management and IT support. In one pilot project, for example, the time required to convert documents into structured data was reduced from an average of 30 minutes to just two; processing 1,800 documents in this way saved 105 working days.
“The launch of the new platform is a major milestone in the implementation of Charité’s AI strategy,” emphasizes Alexander Meyer, whose team is responsible for the platform’s development and rollout. In addition to the technical platform, the AI strategy encompasses training, advisory services, and mandatory guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence.
Further expansion stages planned
The current system forms the foundation for the next stage: AI agents capable of handling multi-step tasks—such as analysing documents, consolidating and analyzing data, preparing drafts, or automating clinical processes. Such applications are already being created in research and IT via the programming interface.
“In the upcoming expansion stages, agents will operate directly within the user interface in a secure environment and be gradually integrated with Charité systems,” explains Alexander Meyer. “The same principles apply as today: data and control remain within Charité, and responsibility remains with the people.”
About the development and operation of the AI platform Clé
The AI platform Clé was developed by Ascléa GmbH—a spin-off from Charité and the German Heart Centre Charité—and is operated jointly with the Institute for AI in Medicine (IKIM) and the IT Department on Charité’s own infrastructure. The infrastructure team and the High-Performance Computing unit within the IT Department are responsible for maintaining the high-performance computer that runs the models. Support for building and further developing technical AI capabilities is provided by Charité’s Centre of Technical Excellence (CTE). The Governance, Compliance, and Data Protection Department oversees the project from a regulatory perspective.
Prof. Alexander Meyer, the platform’s initiator and Director of the IKIM, is a co-founder, shareholder, and one of the managing directors of Ascléa. Charité itself holds a stake in Ascléa through its technology transfer partner, Ascenion; it uses the platform free of charge and shares in the company’s revenue, while making no payments to Ascléa. The contractual terms were negotiated and approved by the relevant Charité departments.
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