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!
MIRACUM Online Symposium: Videos and Slides are now available!
One week has already passed since the MIRACUM Symposium took place. Not as planned in Freiburg, but virtually. Despite these circumstances, we can proudly say that it was a fantastic event. A big thank you to everyone that made this possible: the MIRACUM team members, the speakers and last but not least the approximately 300 participants who attended the Symposium via Zoom and YouTube. For all those who want to review the Symposium again or have missed it, all slides and some videos are now available on our homepage: Symposium Presentations
Furthermore, we want to announce our current issue of the MIRACUM Journal!
To shorten the waiting time for a printed copy, we do not want to withhold the digital version from you. This version is now as well available on our homepage: MIRACUM Journal
The third issue of the MIRACUM Journal takes a look back at the past year. It highlights the work within MIRACUM, but also takes up cross-consortium projects such as CORD and POLAR. A closing outlook puts the reader in the mood for the activities to be pursued in the coming months.
At this point we would to remind everyone to reserve October 8th / 9th as catch-up date for a “presence” Symposium in Freiburg.
Live Stream of the MIRACUM Online Symposium
We have currently more than 250 registrations for our MIRACUM Online Symposium and there are continuously new requests for participation. Therefore we have now managed (in addition to our Zoom web conference) to stream the Online Symposium also on Youtube.
The stream will be available between 10 am and 3pm on Friday, 27.03.2020.
Interested? Join us! ➜ YouTube
Job Offer: (Medical) computer scientist in personalized oncology (UKSH, Campus Lübeck)
As part of the MII, the UKSH Campus Lübeck is cooperating with MIRACUM in an interdisciplinary project on molecular tumor boards. The aim is to develop standardized methods, quality management and knowledge databases for molecular interpretation and clinical interpretation of the results. For this project we are looking for a (medical) computer scientist in the field of personalized oncology to strengthen our team.
Interested? Read more!
Finally: Launch of the international terminology standard SNOMED-CT in Germany
With immediate effect, all participants of the medical informatics initiative and their cooperation partners can obtain a free SNOMED CT license. It represents an important step for medical research. Thanks to SNOMED CT, different terms in medical documentation can now be translated into an internationally uniform code. In this way, clinical data can be made comparable not only throughout Germany, but also internationally. This is an essential prerequisite for better research and treatment of diseases in the future.
Currently, this is still a “pilot phase”, which initially only allows MII sites to access SNOMED CT. For this purpose, the license fees are paid by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. However, the Federal Ministry of Health is also planning to extend this to the entire area of care in the near future.
Further information: Press release BMBF and MII SNOMED CT FAQ
MIRACUM Symposium on Friday 27th of March 2020 as Online Symposium
The MIRACUM Consortium has decided to hold its Annual Symposium as an Online Symposium in a shorter version than originally planned.
We have organized two sessions with a lunch break in between.
27.03.2020 / 10.00 – 11.30 / Session 1:
- the MIRACUM Master Course on Biomedical Informatics and Medical Data Science
- Results and News from the MII Working Groups
27.03.2020 / 12.45 – 15.00 / Session 2:
- MIRACUM DIZ Components and ETL Processes
- Live Demonstration of the MIRACUM Research Portal
The full program details are available via “Program Online Symposium”
Everybody who is already registered for the Symposium will soon receive the access details for the Online Symposium.
If you are not yet registered, but interested to participate in the MIRACUM Online-Symposium please send a short mail with your name and institution to info@miracum.de.
The number of total participants is limited – thus we will provide access details as long as this limit is not yet reached.
