Since 2018, nine German university hospitals have been exploring together how to set up data integration centres and work together on important research topics that will benefit from researchers being able to share and exchange research data.
The Smart Medical Information Technology for Healthcare (SMITH) initiative focuses on key topics of strategic importance, such as intensive care, use of antibiotics, and phenotyping. These are clearly key challenging areas in hospitals and hospital research in the ‘era of COVID’. An EHTEL Secretariat member sits on the SMITH advisory board.
A 2019 survey of clinicians offers some really interesting insights into how German university hospitals doctors view usage of mobile devices. Their views seem to be highly positive. Challenges of course, remain – including regulatory, financial, organisational, and – still – interoperability and workflows.
Back in May 2020, RWTH Aachen’s app on early detection of acute lung failure was the first Medical Informatics Initiative endeavour to be successfully certified as a Class I medical device. After a development and test phase of two years, the app officially bears the legal CE mark.
For more inspirational insights into how Germany is at the forefront of data use and re-use in hospitals, and how SMITH is helping to lead the way in this, see the:
SMITH is one of the several German projects working as part of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII).