The consortium HiGHmed unites and integrates competences of eight university hospitals and medical faculties as well as further scientific and business partners in order to develop innovative information infrastructures. Thus, the translation of research findings into clinical practice shall be accelerated.
HiGHmed is funded by BMBF during the development and networking phase since January 2018.
Die MII baut seit 2018 Dateninfrastrukturen an den Universitätskliniken auf. Anhand vielfältiger Anwendungsfälle – von der Intensiv- bis zur Krebsmedizin – demonstrierten die MII-Partner bereits den Mehrwert ihrer IT-Lösungen in der Praxis. Im Fokus der Ausbau- und Erweiterungsphase (2023-2026) steht eine erweiterte Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Universitätskliniken und deren Kooperation mit neuen Partnern, insbesondere auch aus der regionalen Versorgung.
Data integration centres
The partners collaborate across organisations and institutions in order to establish a network of data integration centres and to expand this network in terms of quality and quantity in the following years. In doing so, they aim to develop innovative and interoperable data integration solutions and methods on the basis of international standards and to prove their benefits for research and health care.
Based on three scientifically challenging clinical use cases in the fields of oncology, cardiology and infection control, the data integration centres will show exemplarily how data, information and knowledge from health care as well as clinical and biomedical research can be connected for the benefit of patients across locations. For the efficient use of data between the facilities, the consortium will focus on open, standardised and interoperable solutions that can be transferred to other clinical use cases and sustainably integrated into the operation of university hospitals. Data protection and data security have top priority.
Use Cases
The oncology use case will address the challenges of incorporating huge data volumes (omics data) from genome sequencing and radiology into clinical practice. A virtual oncology centre will visualise the course of cancer treatment, and serve as a platform for sharing information between hospitals, research institutes, doctors and patients. The virtual centre will play a significant role in identifying similar cancer cases, and enabling tailored, patient-centred care – as demonstrated by examples involving tumours of the pancreas, liver and bile ducts.
In the cardiology use case, data from wearable, implanted and connected medical devices will be transferred to the data centres. New, mobile diagnostic devices will have a major impact on medical practice and research. They capture data from long-term monitoring and measurements, generating highly specific and comprehensive data sets. As a result, high-risk patients could be identified early, hospital stays reduced, and mortality rates lowered.
The infection control use case will develop an automated early-warning and cluster-analysis system to support the algorithmic detection of pathogen clusters in hospitals. This includes the identification of multidrug-resistant organism clusters, and their transmission routes within and between hospitals. It will also help determine whether clusters represent genuine outbreaks, and identify potential causes.
Data use and access concept
HiGHmed is developing a comprehensive data protection concept. This takes into account the location-specific principles and policies of the data integration centres, plus the requirements of its three use cases. The consortium has also drawn on the generic data protection concepts published by TMF as part of its book series in 2014. HiGHmed partners collaborated during the conceptual phase of the Medical Informatics Initiative to determine details of its data protection concept – for example, on data flow, identifying applicable legislation, origin and determination of data, and on applying technical and organisational solutions. HiGHmed continues to evolve and adapt its data protection concept, taking into account German legislation that has yet to be amended in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Presentation and discussion will be via TMF’s data protection working group.
Measures to strengthen medical informatics in Germany
- Establishment of a teaching and training programme
- Establishment of a training-on-the-job programme
- Development of concepts for graduate and post-graduate education
- Qualifications for employees in the field of medical informatics
- Training for medical healthcare professionals on using new technologies
- HiGHmed certificate in medical informatics
- Raising the proportion of women in medical informatics
- Providing online information modules for patients, study participants, and citizens
The goal of the HiGHmed (Heidelberg - Göttingen - Hanover Medical Informatics) consortium is to develop and apply innovative information infrastructures – to enhance the efficiency of clinical research, and to accelerate the translation of these results into verifiable improvements in patient care.
During the conceptual phase of the initiative, HiGHmed developed concepts to establish four coordinated data integration centres (DICs) at the consortium’s locations. These would be compatible across organisations and institutions, and suitable for international cooperation. Moreover, the DICs are to be expanded both qualitatively and quantitatively in the following years.
This work is aligned with HiGHmed’s goal of developing innovative, internationally interoperable data integration solutions and methods, and proving their added value for research and patient care. In addition, the consortium intends to establish a programme to strengthen education and promote young medical informatics professionals – with a focus on new learning methods that incorporate digital media.
Concepts ready for implementation were developed in five work packages (WPs):
- WP1 defined how data integration centres would be implemented and interconnected in greater detail.
- WP2 formulated research strategies on the basis of three medical use cases. These were developed in detail with corresponding experts from the consortium’s three sites to improve the chances of future validation of the data integration centres. The oncology use case focuses on the incorporation of omics data into clinical practice. The cardiology use case is based on data from wearable or implantable sensors, and the infectiology use case on data from healthcare.
- WP3 described the education/support programme for young professionals in medical informatics.
- WP4 focused on data protection, ethics and legal issues.
- In addition to coordinating HiGHmed, WP5 developed concepts for external communications and roll-out.
