The seven innovation hubs

The Digitalization & eHealth Hub coordinates UMFCD's digital transformation with an approach few institutions actually apply: we don't just adopt outside technology, we build our own capacity. We run an AI lab with dedicated hardware infrastructure, develop and operate our own local language model (LLM), and deliver institutional platforms for education, administration, equipment management, and activity reporting.

Our work spans three layers: infrastructure (hardware, AI lab, servers, integration with UMFCD systems), digital products (institutional chatbot, course platforms, administrative systems, equipment geolocation), and education (workshops and hands-on modules on the responsible use of AI in medicine, for students, faculty, and researchers).

We build these components because a modern medical university can no longer leave its critical functions — education, administration, data management — entirely in the hands of outside vendors. CIEH operates as in-house infrastructure: the place where UMFCD tests, adapts, and implements technology instead of buying it off the shelf every time. The result is directly measurable: digital autonomy, predictable costs, in-house technical capacity, hands-on education, and an institutional position as an active player — not just a consumer — in Romania's digital and e-health ecosystem.

The 3D Printing Laboratory, founded in 2020 through a partnership between CieH and the Romanian Medical Association for 3D Biomodeling, is ISO 13485:2016 certified for the design, printing, and distribution of medical devices. Its team of physicians and biomedical engineers combines medical imaging with computer-aided design (CAD-CAM) to create anatomical models, surgical guides, implants, and custom devices.

The lab produces over 8,000 anatomical models a year for medical education, and has so far delivered more than 500 custom biocompatible surgical guides and over 40,000 printed models in total, 20,000 of them medical. Tactile anatomical replicas support preoperative planning in neurosurgery, oncology, orthopedics, cardiovascular surgery, and maxillofacial surgery.

Its infrastructure spans the full range of additive manufacturing — FDM/FFF/MC-FDM, SLA/MSLA photopolymerization, laser sintering and melting (SLS/SLM), volumetric xolography, and 3D bioprinting — supporting research in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and bioprinting on an in-house platform.

The Digital Communication Hub addresses the need for coherent, modern, digitally native institutional communication. Building on the Multimedia Lab, developed within CieH since 2025, the hub turns the centre's projects, research, and initiatives into clear, relevant, accessible content.

Its mission is to strengthen CieH's identity and grow the visibility of its projects, scientific results, and activities, by creating and distributing scientific, medical, and educational content tailored to different audiences.

The Multimedia Lab covers the full production flow — concept, filming, editing, graphics, and publishing — producing podcasts and interviews (the UMFCD Talks series), educational materials, short-form social content, and long-form video, while also serving as a hands-on training space for students and volunteers.

The Space Medicine Nucleus is an academic initiative dedicated to exploring medicine at the intersection of science, technology, and the future of space exploration. Established in 2021, it promotes an interdisciplinary approach to human health in extreme environments, bringing together perspectives from medicine, physiology, neuroscience, engineering, and emerging technologies.

Its main areas of interest include human adaptation to microgravity, the effects of cosmic radiation, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and neurological changes, as well as the challenges associated with isolation and long-duration space missions. Through educational activities, research projects, conferences, workshops, and collaborative initiatives, the nucleus contributes to a modern framework for training and scientific dialogue.

Students and early-career researchers are encouraged to engage with an emerging field where medicine converges with innovation and advanced technologies designed for space exploration, while national and international collaborations facilitate the exchange of expertise and interdisciplinary projects with both academic and practical relevance.

Beyond preparing for future missions to the Moon and Mars, space medicine generates knowledge and solutions with significant potential for translation into medical practice on Earth. Through this vision, the nucleus strengthens the role of “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in a rapidly evolving field and helps train a new generation of professionals equipped to address the challenges of the medicine of the future.