Job Offer: PR specialist (f/m/d)
In order to make the work in the MIRACUM consortium more visible to the public, the Central Office in Erlangen is looking for a support in the field of PR activities for the next possible date. The scope of duties includes editorial activities, but also communication with representatives from politics and society.
For more information and the job description, please follow this link.
Lights, Camera, Action!
Extraordinary working days were scheduled at the Erlangen site of the MIRACUM consortium in October 2020. Within 3 days, the shooting for the MII Image Film was finished. For MIRACUM, the Use Case 2 was selected by the BMBF to present our consortium.
This use case deals with the
development and establishment of methods for the cross-location analysis of patient data using asthma and COPD as examples. Accordingly, the script emphasized these lung diseases and the potential of distributed data analysis to improve therapy strategies. In this context, Prof. Hans-Ulrich Prokosch (Erlangen) and Prof. Harald Renz (Marburg) name the problems of treatment and the extent to which artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used. Specific developed algorithms can contribute to the progress of precision medicine on the basis of previously collected data.
Besides MIRACUM, filming with the HiGHmed consortium has also been completed. Next year, the remaining scenes will be shot in Munich (DIFURTURE) and Leipzig (SMITH). The completion of the production of the film can be eagerly anticipated in the second half of 2021.
Photos: Anne Rosner
“Biomedical Informatics and Data Science” at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences
Online master’s program and certificate courses beginning in October – innovative, interactive, self-organized and family-friendly.
Qualified medical computer scientists are in great demand in all health care facilities and the medical industry. For this reason, the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and the MIRACUM consortium offer an all new online master’s degree program “Biomedical Informatics and Data Science” starting in October 2020. The course is designed for graduates with a first university degree (Bachelor, Diploma) in Medical Informatics, Medical Documentation, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Natural and Life Sciences or a completed state examination in Human, Veterinary and Dental Medicine.
The course of studies is divided into five focus areas: Medicine, Computer Science, Medical Computer Science, Biomedical Data Science and Management & Social Skills. Internationally recognized lecturers from the fields of patient care, research and teaching, instruct the latest methods, techniques and developments.
Providing flexibility between family life, current career, and furthering education, we offer 90 percent of the studies online and only 10 percent face-to-face. Due to low synchronous shares during the online phases, students can arrange their learning activities flexibly and freely.
The online-based self-study is carried out with the help of numerous small multimedia and interactive learning units, including lecture recordings, videos, eScripts, podcasts and self-learning controls. The active application and deepening of knowledge is promoted by continuous individual and collaborative work on learning and practice tasks as well as by the joint exchange in the learning group. The courses are not organized as classical lecturer- and input-oriented courses, rather they support in many ways an intensively supervised self-study learning process.
Regardless of the course of studies, the health care system requires constant further training for future demanding qualified jobs in information technology. This is especially true because of the rapid methodological and technological progress as well as the frequent lack of medical knowledge, which is necessary for the successful conception, development and introduction of typical medical applications. Without further training, one quickly loses the professional connection nowadays. For this reason, certified online continuing education courses in Medicine, Computer Science, Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics will also be offered from the Winter Semester 2020/21.
For additional information regarding the course of studies, further training offers and the application process visit our homepage www.master-bids.de.
You can find the press release in German here.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Paul Schmücker
Email: p.schmuecker@hs-mannheim.de
Phone: 04571/9783635
University Medicine Greifswald starts digital registration of patient consent with the Broad Consent of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII)
From now on, patients at University Medicine Greifswald will be asked during their admission interview whether their pseudonymized health data may be used for medical research. The consent, which is presented to the patients, is the nationwide standard text for consent (so-called “Broad Consent”) of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII). The University Medicine Greifswald is partner in the MIRACUM consortium of the MII and one of the first locations of the MII using the Broad Consent in a pilot phase.
In the central in-patient admission of the University Medicine Greifswald, a TV team from the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) accompanied two patients during the comprehensive process with regards to information about the consent and MII research, consultation and digital consent registration. By giving their consent, both patients now actively support research with their “data donation”.
It was particularly important to those responsible to implement paperless processes from the very beginning. Thus, the consent of the patients is digitally documented using a standard tablet. For this purpose, a system integration of SAP with the software tools of the Independent Trusted Third Party at the University Medicine Greifswald has been implemented. All complex technical processes are hidden from the patients: they only recognize the text of the consent on the tablet, which they intuitively scroll through, “tick” and sign.
Preliminary technical work in the course of the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) has enabled a quick transfer of the solution into the clinical documentation system KAS+. In the future, this solution is also to be used in a slightly different setting with a different system integration in the DFG-funded project RADARplus in general practitioners’ practices in Lower Saxony.
4CE Consortium – Results of Phase 1 published
First results of the 4CE Consortium were successfully published today in Nature Digital Medicine. The manuscript with the title “International Electronic Health Record-Derived COVID-19 Clinical Course Profile: The 4CE Consortium” covers the consortium’s data collection process and findings on EHR data from 96 hospitals in the US, France, Italy, Germany, and Singapore. These hospitals contributed data to the consortium for a total of 27,927 COVID-19 cases and 187,802 performed laboratory values. The provision of a central repository for medical records, which in addition to rapid data acquisition also allows data analysis and visualization, has provided fascinating, albeit preliminary, clinical evidence of how the disease presents, develops and affects different organ systems in different categories of COVID-19 patients.
In phase 1 of the project, the focus was initially on the following data:
- Total number of COVID-19 patients
- Number of intensive care unit admissions and discharges
- Seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 people by country
- Daily death toll
- Demographic breakdown of patients
- Laboratory tests to assess cardiac, immune and kidney and liver function, measure red and white blood cell counts, inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, as well as two proteins related to blood clotting (D-dimer) and cardiac muscle injury (troponin)
In this phase, three locations of the MIRACUM consortium – Erlangen, Freiburg, Mannheim – have already been able to participate and provide data from their DIZ. They will also actively participate in the consortium in the next analysis phase that will also include more detailed clinical data from the patient´s ICU stay.
For further information please read the press release of the Havard Medical School.
New Junior Research Group „CDS2USE“ at MIRACUM Partner Location Dresden
On 01.07.2020 a new MIRACUM junior research group started its work at the partner location Dresden. Under the title “Prospective User-Centered Design of Clinical Decision Support Systems in the Context of Personalized Medicine” the new group CDS2USE will research the user-centered development of clinical decision support systems. The junior research group is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for 5 years and is headed by Dr. Brita Sedlmayr, engineering psychologist with over 15 years of interdisciplinary research experience in the field of user-centered system development.
Specifically, the junior research group CDS2USE will pursue the following three scientific objectives:
- Development of algorithms for context-sensitive decision support: A major challenge in the development of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) is the provision and use of context-sensitive data, since the identification and delimitation of different contexts is largely unexplored in the medical field. Therefore, already existing algorithms should be adapted, combined and supplemented in such a way that the systems are able to present the ‘right’ information to the ‘right’ person at the ‘right’ time, in the ‘right’ place, and in the ‘right’ way. In doing so, competing factors and values that influence clinical decision-making should be considered appropriately.
- Development of transparent and comprehensible decision support to promote user empowerment: Currently, existing concepts and approaches of human-computer interaction are not sufficient for healthcare professionals to understand CDSS. Therefore, concepts should be developed, which present the system’s decision proposals in an explainable and transparent way and enable users to gain individual control over the system on the basis of intelligent explanation tools (“user empowerment”).
- Further development of existing evaluation methods for a fit to CDSS: Although there are numerous recommendations for user-centered design and evaluation of interactive systems, these do not take into account the specific medical context. Existing evaluation methods should therefore be further developed, adapted or extended for CDSS in the context of personalized medicine. In particular, new methods for evaluation should be developed with regard to the understandability and transparency of system proposals, as well as new methods for testing intelligent visualizations.
The group’s research will focus on a systems engineering approach that considers the end user, the technology used and the work processes equally. This should ensure that a comprehensive understanding of specific clinical work processes is achieved and that concepts will be developed based on established recommendations for the ergonomic design of IT systems. In addition, the group will conduct “participatory research” involving medical professionals, patients and decision-makers (depending on the respective work) to ensure that the results obtained address the actual needs and the specific situation of the persons directly affected.
Further information on the junior research group CDS2USE can be found here: https://www.uniklinikum-dresden.de/de/das-klinikum/universitaetscentren/zentrum-fuer-medizinische-informatik/leistungen/nachwuchsgruppe-cds2us
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg wins professorship on Medical Data Science
In December 2019, the Free State of Bavaria has initiated a competition amongst the Bavarian universities to establish 50 new professorships focusing on various aspects of artificial intelligence research. On May 15th, 2020 the final decision was made. From the 175 applications, 50 professorships were selected by an expert board, including two applications from the Medical Faculty of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, one of them (Medical Data Science) being closely related to biomedical informatics research in the field of artificial intelligence. This will further strengthen the research competences of Erlangen within the MIRACUM consortium.
Image Source: StMWK
Milestone accomplished: Go-ahead for Broad Consent
The Federal and State Data Protection Board has officially and unanimously accepted the version of the model text for broad consent and the associated documents provided by the NSG. This decision now enables medical research to obtain broad cnsent for the use of pseudonymised clinical data throughout Germany on the basis of the EU Basic Data Protection Regulation. This is an indispensable prerequisite, particularly with regard to future research projects whose issues have not yet been identified when patient consent is obtained.
In the next step, the model text will be coordinated in the university hospitals with the respective local ethics commissions so that it can be implemented promptly.
Further information can be found in the press release of the TMF and the press release of the Data Protection Board. The resolution is published online on the website of the Data Protection Board.
Three MIRACUM sites joined the international 4CE consortium
In order to join forces and to leverage the value of their EHR data supporting the fight against the COVID-19 virus, an international consortium (4CE) of 96 hospitals across 5 countries (www.covidclinical.net) has been initiated by the i2b2/tranSMART foundation in the last weeks of March 2020. The MIRACUM sites Erlangen, Freiburg and Mannheim, which were already actively involved in the i2b2/tranSMART community, decided to join this consortium, acquired IRB and UAC approval for this project and provided aggregated data for a phase 1 analysis.
In this phase, first clinical and epidemiological questions about the incidence and clinical course of COVID-19 patients could be analyzed and early results have just been published as preprint, which you can find here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.13.20059691v1.full.pdf
Job Offer: Head of Junior Research Group (f/m/d)
The professorship for Medical Informatics at the Technische Universität Dresden is establishing a new junior research group within the Medical Informatics Initiative. The main focus of the group will be the prospective and user-oriented design of clinical decision support systems in the context of personalized medicine. In order to set up this research group, the position of head of the group is to be filled as soon as possible.
Interested? Read more!
- Job Offer: PR specialist (f/m/d) January 12, 2021
- Lights, Camera, Action! November 3, 2020
- “Biomedical Informatics and Data Science” at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences September 9, 2020
