Results from DISTANCE: Successful Networking of Patient Data from Regional Healthcare for Research
The DISTANCE Digital Hub is nearing the end of its first funding phase. More than 30 project staff members met in Düssel...
02 September, 2025 News
Smart Medical Technology for Healthcare
In the SMITH Consortium, a network of university and university medical partners is working on linking research and healthcare in a targeted and data protection-compliant manner. The Data Integration Centers set up at the clinical sites for this purpose are the central technological interfaces. They process the healthcare data generated in everyday clinical practice and make the data available to medical research in standardized form. The prerequisite for all work is always the declaration of consent of the patients, who make a significant contribution to improving medical care by providing their data. Based on clinical and methodological use cases, SMITH tests and proves the benefit of the IT solutions developed. SMITH is one of four consortia of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). As part of the consolidation and extension phase funded from 2023 to 2026, data-based health research is to be further expanded through cooperation with new partners, especially from the regional health care sector. The expansion of the medical informatics infrastructure will take place in close cooperation with the Network University Medicine (NUM).
Linking information systems
Standardized data preparation and analysis
Use of healthcare and research data
Personalized patient care in all domains
SMITH Added Value
For researchers
Secure access to research-relevant data and algorithms across locations
For medical scientists
Decision support for individualized patient care
For patients
Improvement and personalization of diagnostics and therapy
For young talents
Enhancement of teaching and research in medical informatics
News
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A Look into the Data Integration Centers: Automated Tumor Documentation and Smarter Data Queries at the Data Integration Center Essen
The Data Integration Center at the Essen University Hospital has been part of the SMITH Consortium since 2018 and is now...
11 August, 2025 News -
Recovering After Intensive Care with Digital Support
The PICOS Study of the DISTANCE project supports former intensive care patients via an app. The aim is to better underst...
31 July, 2025 News
5 Questions for
Digital Follow-Up Care After the ICU: “We Learned a Lot From Patient Feedback for Our Work”
Many former intensive care patients suffer from PICS for a long time. The new PICOS app supports them in their everyday lives and provides data for research. Two experts report on the study.
22. July 2025
How Medical Texts Are Made Usable for AI Models
The GeMTeX project is currently creating a large German-language corpus of clinical texts for AI and research. Two medical students talk about their work on annotating clinical texts in an interview.
7. May 2025
How smartphones and wearables can help diagnose Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
The NDEMobil junior research group in Bonn is developing technical solutions for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases. Find out more in the interview.
5. February 2025
Blaze: A Link Between Research and Patient Care
The FHIR Blaze Server provides researchers with access to medical data across locations. In this interview, developer Alexander Kiel explains what sets Blaze apart and makes it so important for the Medical Informatics Initiative.
25. November 2024
Digital support for ward pharmacists
INTERPOLAR goes into practice: An IT documentation for ward pharmacists is being tested at eight university hospitals. Find out more in the interview with Prof. Dr. André Scherag and Dr. Daniel Neumann.
24. October 2024
A Data Integration Center as a Service Facility for Research
A Data Integration Center is currently being established at Rostock University Medical Center. Petra Gröber is leading the project and talks about the challenges and plans in an interview.
4. July 2024
How data from clinical care can be used in practice
The "BENEFIT" Junior Research Group at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf is creating the framework conditions for making healthcare data usable. Find out more in the interview with group leader Dr Philipp Breitfeld!
16. January 2024
On World Boss Day: “Persuasiveness and forethought are the keys”
Today is World Boss Day! We took the opportunity to talk to the head of our consortium.
16. October 2023
Synergy of Medicine and IT: Advances in Infection Medicine
In our latest "5 Questions for" interview, Roland Ihle and Anja share their findings from the HELP study.
30. August 2023
“We have to find a common language”: GeMTeX_MII makes it possible
In this interview, GeMTeX project managers Christina Lohr and Luise Modersohn explain how clinical texts can be used for AI, what challenges exist, and how clinics and research can benefit from this.
29. June 2023
About Virtual Patients and Artificial Intelligence in the Intensive Care Unit
AI and machine learning can optimize intensive care medicine, e.g., by predicting disease progression. In this interview, Konstantin Sharafutdinov explains how virtual patients can help with this.
5. April 2023
Reducing medication problems – INTERPOLAR project launch
INTERPOLAR was launched in January 2023. In this interview, Prof. Thürmann and Dr. Mussawy explain how the project aims to improve drug safety through data analysis.
26. January 2023
Why Data Integration Centers are more than just technology
Dr. Irina Lutz heads up the Data Integration Center in Aachen. In this interview, she talks about her responsibilities, processes, challenges, and her vision for the future of Data Integration Centers.
20. December 2022
How algorithms can help improve medical research and patient care
Christoph Beger, a young researcher at the University of Leipzig, explains in an interview how algorithmic phenotyping improves research with medical data and optimizes patient care in the long term.
17. November 2022
Targeted prevention and therapy after intensive medical treatment
The BMBF-funded Digital Hubs were launched almost a year ago. In this interview, Prof. Marx and Dr. Molinnus provide an overview of the SMITH Consortium's DISTANCE Hub.
28. September 2022
New Solutions in Digital Health
Prof. André Scherag is Congress President for the SMITH Congress 2022. Within the consortium, he is committed to the sustainable use of healthcare data for biomedical research. Find out more about the SMITH Congress in this interview.
25. April 2022
Why diversity and equality are also important for medical informatics
We spoke to Dr Anke Diehl, Head of the Digital Transformation Unit and Chief Transformation Officer at the Essen University Hospital about women and diversity in medical informatics.
8. March 2022
Event Dates
September 25, 2025
SMITH Closed Meeting
Projektinternes Meeting
Venue: Webmeeting
September 23 – 24, 2025
4th Meeting – National Steering Committee
Project internal meeting
Venue: Webmeeting