News

02.09.2025
Results from DISTANCE: Successful Networking of Patient Data from Regional Healthcare for Research | DISTANCE Project Closing Meeting on August 27–28, 2025 in Düsseldorf

After four years of intensive work, the Digital Hub DISTANCE is approaching the end of its first funding phase. The aim of the DISTANCE project is to build on the work of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and make data from regional healthcare facilities available......
News
11.08.2025
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 a permanent component of the hospital’s care-oriented IT infrastructure. ...
News
31.07.2025
Recovering After Intensive Care with Digital Support: Lessons from the PICOS Study

The PICOS study within the Digital Hub DISTANCE supports former intensive care patients through the PICOS App. Its aim is to gain a better understanding of PICS and to develop new therapeutic options. By the end of June, the last participant had been enrolled in the study, and data analysis will begin in the fall. Yet even now, one thing is clear: participants and researchers have gained valuable insights into the use and added value of digital solutions for post-intensive care follow-up....
News
22.07.2025
Digital Follow-Up Care After the ICU: “We Learned a Lot From Patient Feedback for Our Work” | 5 Questions for … Petra Hetfeld & Dr. Caren Martin on Patient Recruitment in the DISTANCE Project

Many former intensive care patients continue to experience physical and mental health issues, such as difficulty concentrating or muscle weakness, long after their hospital stay. These symptoms are collectively referred to as “Post-Intensive Care Syndrome” (PICS) and are often associated with a reduced quality of......
5 Questions for
03.06.2025
A Look into the Data Integration Centers: Secure Research with the Data Integration Center Hamburg

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. In this part of our series, the team at the Hamburg Data Integration Center explains what it offers to researchers at its location and how the Data Integration Center plans to develop in the future....
News