“The TMF has supported the digitalisation of medical research for more than 15 years now. The subject is therefore almost an anachronism at the TMF congress,” said TMF Chairman, Prof. Dr. Michael Krawczak (University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel campus), in his welcome address on 14 March 2018 during the tenth TMF annual congress at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). What is new, though, is the close connection between research and patient care that dominated the congress programme.
During the two-day event, around 150 experts mainly working in medical research or medical informatics or at biobanks discussed opportunities for the digitalisation of medical research and care, exchanged on common challenges and possibilities for cooperation, and shared examples of best practices. The German Biobank Alliance (GBA) and Medical Informatics Initiative were among the national projects presented.
Similar challenges: close cooperation between the Medical Informatics Initiative and German Biobank Node mutually beneficial
Dr. Cornelia Rufenach (Managing Director, German Biobank Node) introduced the German Biobank Alliance: “The GBA aims to establish common quality standards for samples and data as well as to make these samples and data available for national and international research projects.” When it comes to IT networking, the Medical Informatics Initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and GBN/GBA both encounter very similar challenges. A great deal of common ground exists regarding legal and ethical aspects as well as on the organisational and semantic levels. They are able to work in symbiosis in many areas and to collaborate on the development of the IT network. This was emphasised by Dr. Martin Lablans (German Cancer Research Center, DKFZ) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Ganslandt (University Medical Centre Mannheim, UMM), who discussed the cooperation between the two initiatives from the perspective of the participating university centres.
Further information (in German):
Detailed congress review on the TMF website
Presentation slides (in German):
Dr. Cornelia Rufenach (GBN):GBN & GBA: Nationales Biobanking und Schnittstelle zu Europa (GBN & GBA: national biobanking and interfaces to Europe) [PDF | 2 MB]
Dr. Martin Lablans (DKFZ):IT-Infrastrukturen und Harmonisierung: Zusammenarbeit zwischen MII und GBA (IT infrastructures and harmonisation: cooperation between the MII and GBA) [PDF | 1.1 MB]
Prof. Dr. Thomas Ganslandt (UMM):IT-Infrastrukturen und Harmonisierung: Zusammenarbeit zwischen MII und GBA (IT infrastructures and harmonisation: cooperation between the MII and GBA) [PDF | 770 kB]
