A Look into the the Data Integration Centers: An important resource for clinical researchers in the future – The Medical Data Integration Center Rostock

In the new SMITH news series “A look into the Data Integration Centers”, a Data Integration Center established within the SMITH Consortium of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) will be presented on a monthly basis. The Data Integration Centers, which were initially established at university medical centers, create the conditions for secure and privacy-compliant access to high-quality data from routine care. Today’s focus is on the Medical Data Integration Center at the University Medical Center Rostock, which was a network partner in the SMITH Consortium from 2018 to 2022 and started its development in 2023. Read more about the Data Integration Center Team and its plans to offer medical researchers in the future.

What are the functions of the Data Integration Center Rostock staff?

As one of the new Data Integration Centers in the SMITH Consortium, the Medical Data Integration Center Rostock is working with a dedicated team of eight employees to establish an operational Data Integration Center. The work of each individual is crucial to its success:

• Computer scientists lay the foundation by developing the necessary research infrastructure.
• Project management and administration plan and implement the structures and processes that integrate the Data Integration Centers as an interface between patient care and research at the University Medicine of Rostock.
• A student assistant supports the team in particular with the coding of laboratory tests (LOINC) and is thus able to apply and deepen the knowledge gained in her Master’s degree in “Medical Biotechnology”.
  

What services would the Data Integration Center Rostock like to offer medical researchers in the future?

At the moment, the focus is clearly on establishing the Data Integration Center. However, we are already processing the first requests for data delivery, where possible. We have the following goals for the future:

• Providing health data from patient care at the University Medical Center Rostock for local and cross-site research projects – always in compliance with data protection regulations and quality assured.
• Developing a toolbox with helpful tools such as electronic case report forms (eCRFs) and an electronic lab notebook to facilitate the handling of research data. We will also provide training and workshops.
• Consulting and other services. For example, we support researchers in submitting applications through the Research Data Portal for Health (FDPG). Together with the Research Data Team of the Rostock University Library, we offer comprehensive support on the topic of research data management and the handling of research data.

Since 2018, the university medical sites of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) have been setting up Data Integration Centers funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In 2023, the Data Integration Centers of the university hospitals were integrated into the Network of University Medicine (NUM). Since then, they have been funded by the BMBF as part of the NUM, but continue to be managed by the MII.