Infrastructure

C-I-R-C will contribute to more harmonized and integrated activities across the partner institutions.

Two central topics are a) the set-up of a data security task force across the different institutes and universities and b) to write a data protection plan for the C-I-R-C sites building on previous experiences for both the Medical Informatics Initiative and the Netzwerk Universitätsmedizin.

Central aim of the Medical Informatics Initiative is to harness innovative IT solutions to enhance research and patient care.

This infrastructure is completed by the unique resources and research support from the partnering Helmholtz/German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute for Data Science, where analytical and high throughput computational cores are provided.

These solutions should enable the sharing and utilization of data, gained from healthcare and from clinical and biomedical research, across multiple entities and sites.

Additionally, the initiative strengthens medical informatics in research, education and skills development. All three sites are in the process of establishing data integration centers (DIC), with the DIC Jena and Halle sites belonging to the SMITH consortium and Magdeburg belong to the MIRACUM consortium.

C-I-R-C would leverage the individual strengths of the consortia and contribute to their even better integration.

As part of the EU-DeepHealth project, which offers a unique platform for exploiting complex pattern in large biomedical datasets, e.g. using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, we coordinate the use cases for mental health.

By establishing a Citizen Science Lab we also aim to make our science public and understandable to the community.

Our broad activities related to the IT-Health and Health Data Science cover multiple areas.

We have developed an industry cluster with a focus on „psychotechnology“ – (PsychTech cluster). Through cooperation of companies in the region of Saxony-Anhalt (in cooperation with Thuringia), supervised and coordinated by the network INNOMED e.V., psychotechnologies are developed and offered on the market. This enables the development of a completely new business field, where no expensive „high-tech“ device development is necessary, but existing technology (internet, media and digital offers, small devices) is researched, tested and marketed for the new market of mental health. We follow the principle „low tech – high concept“.

These new psychotechnologies not only help employees of our local clinics, but also the population and economy of middle Germany. In the PsychTech cluster, digital offerings for health promotion are screened, tested (both technically and clinically), and implemented. Technology-oriented companies in medical and health technology will find suitable business fields here.

In Saxony-Anhalt, there is already a critical mass of relevant companies, such as Celloon GmbH, Hasomed GmbH, neotiv GmbH, silver seed UG, SAVIR GmbH, or Pixelmad Studios UG. In addition, several research institutions are doing research in this field such as the Leibnitz Institute of Neurbiology, DZNE, OVGU, and Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences.

The PsychTech cluster has a unique selling point in Germany – and Europe-wide – and benefits from a critical mass of existing research institutions that research and teach on the topic of „mental health“ in Saxony-Anhalt. In addition, universities in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia will be a focal point for academic research and technology transfer in the future and with that new solutions can reach the general population.