Harnessing the power of clinical data to improve patient care

LIH joins the medical informatics network HiGHmed

• Digital Health
• Department of Medical Informatics

Through the Data Integration & Analysis (DIA) unit, the LIH joined the HiGHmed Consortium, a German medical informatics project gathering hospitals, academia and industry partners to improve the accessibility of medical patient data for clinical research and healthcare. 

The health sector is challenged with an ever-increasing variety of data types and sources, including large amounts of clinically relevant data generated by traditional and new medical devices, as well as from recent breakthroughs such as genome sequencing, imaging and remote sensing, which are increasingly becoming part of clinical care. Nevertheless, only a small fraction of data is currently integrated into routine clinical practice, due to a lack of sophisticated IT structures which could provide clinicians with a holistic view on all available data for optimal diagnosis and treatment. In addition, these unique and invaluable datasets are often unavailable for research purposes, which in turn hinders clinical research and the translation of research results into tangible healthcare solutions.

To address these issues, the HiGHmed Consortium is working on building safe Data Integration Centres and developing interoperable and research-compatible digital solutions to make medical data usable across locations, thereby supporting local and cross-institutional patient care and clinical research. Ultimately, the goal of HiGHmed is to create a technology platform that enables physicians to make data-based and patient-centred decisions. These solutions are already being applied in prototypical clinical use cases in oncology, cardiology and infection control.

Joining the HiGHmed Consortium is a strategic and logical decision for the LIH, as it is perfectly aligned with the objectives of the recently-launched CLINNOVA initiative and with our institute’s focus on supporting the integration of patient-derived data into our research and, ultimately, into current clinical practice.

says Dr Maximilian Fünfgeld, Chief Medical Information Officer at the LIH and leader of the Data Integration & Analysis (DIA) unit.

HiGHmed is one of four consortia of the German Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and pools the expertise of 12 university hospitals and medical faculties, as well as other academic and industrial partners across Germany. The LIH joined HiGHmed in the current funding phase of the MII (2023-2026) and is the first international partner of the network.

In addition, since November 2022, the LIH has been a member of the HiGHmed Association, which was founded in 2019 to find a sustainable and long-term use to the solutions developed within the HiGHmed Consortium. The HiGHmed Association establishes strategic collaborations with institutions from science, politics and industry and develops concepts to expand the existing research focus of HiGHmed. In addition to providing central services to the HiGHmed Consortium, the Association supports the management, coordination and implementation of other research initiatives and projects within the HiGHmed ecosystem.