Project description

The aim of the project was to develop a cross-facility provision of treatment data by the patient to aftercare providers. The innovation consists in the active participation of the patient ("patient empowerment") and in the transfer of selected contents of a medically managed file to aftercare providers. The benefits will be evaluated by the Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences using the example of rehabilitation aftercare and follow-up treatment with selected, representative rehabilitation clinics in the Lower Bavarian spa triangle (Bad Füssing, Bad Griesbach, Bad Birnbach) in terms of manageability as well as process and quality improvement in care. Exploratively, the project realises the transfer to a patient's health record as a further innovation in accordance with Article 20 of the General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR, 2016], which will apply throughout Europe from mid-2018.

Utilisation is guaranteed by the applicant AUC as a developer and implementer of solutions in the healthcare sector and by building on a cooperation platform established in Bavaria and nationwide (TKmed® with more than 200 clinics) and the company E&L.

Project description

Examinations of the stomach and intestines with an endoscope are used for the early detection and treatment of tissue changes. Due to the limited keyhole perspective, only a section of the walls is visible at any one time. The doctor has to mentally synthesise what they see to form an overall picture. As part of the project, components for mapping and documenting the walls of the stomach and intestines are being developed, analysed and evaluated to provide the doctor with a panoramic image of the cavities during the examination.

Sub-project

Innovative PACS solution for storing and processing high-volume, complex fluorescence microscopy data sets

Project description

Serious infectious diseases are among the ten most common causes of death in Europe and are one of the greatest challenges for healthcare systems. A large proportion of these infections are caused by so-called biofilm infections, for the detection and targeted treatment of which diagnostic methods are currently lacking. However, rapid and specific detection of pathogens is essential for the correct choice of antibiotic therapy. FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridisation) is a recognised diagnostic method that combines the advantages of molecular biology, fluorescence microscopy and histology and is based on fluorescence-labelled DNA probes. Using FISH, microorganisms can be visualised and identified microscopically in a tissue context and quantified according to number, localisation and activity. The Biofilm Centre of the German Heart Centre Berlin (DHZB) has unique expertise in the FISH diagnostics of biofilm-associated infections. Corresponding FISH kits and machines are already under development and are expected to be launched on the market in the next few years. The aim of this project is to develop the final building block for the simple, safe and rapid use of FISH on a large scale.

Project description INFOPAT

The Rhine-Neckar Metroploregion (MRN) is one of five BMBF-funded health regions of the future in Germany. The aim is to interlink all players involved in the healthcare industry and thus establish structures and processes that enable cross-sectoral care for chronically ill people. Based on the premise "the citizen and patient at the centre", technologies are to be developed that take into account complex treatment processes, the need for care and the requirements for efficiency and quality. To this end, several application and development projects with a wide range of research projects involving 26 partners from science, research, industry, social services and the public sector will initially be carried out for the use cases of diabetes and colorectal cancer, centred around a patient-controlled personal electronic patient record.

Project description 

The overall aim of the joint project is to create a user-transparent virtual documentation and information server that provides disease-relevant image and diagnostic findings as well as research and therapy information based on an integrated data structure. For the special medical requirements, data protection functionalities and the infrastructure for the administration of very large and complex distributed data volumes must be developed. The medical focus is on tumour diseases. In line with the philosophy of the Internet, a self-growing structure is to be developed on an open source basis, i.e. the project is open to all interested participants. The solution makes it possible for doctors and researchers to exchange integrated image findings data, e.g. for rare diseases or expert consultations, in compliance with data protection regulations. The standards for the solutions were chosen so that they can be linked to large national and international projects and are compatible with the DICOM and IHE medical standards.

The tasks of CHILI within the framework of the sub-project were as follows:

• Connection of storage and databases

• Provision of functionality for the exchange of specialised medical information and medical data (including image data) as well as telemedicine functionalities

• Conception of interfaces and database structures

• Creating, configuring and testing the interfaces to the local systems in Magdeburg and Mainz

• Creating the interfaces to the pathology system

• Customisation of the recording and evaluation masks in the web interface

• Implementation of a telemedicine solution in the GRID environment

The results of this project are software implementations that are available on the MedInfoGrid cluster. In particular, these are the services:

• Educational image collection
  Pathology viewer
  Telemedicine file

These are integrated into the other services of the cluster.