Medical data in the digital age: DIM.RUHR focuses on promoting expertise

A decisive step for the project "DIM.RUHR: Data competence centre for the interprofessional use of health data in the Ruhr metropolis": In December 2023, the German parliament passed the Health Data Use Act (GDNG). It is intended to link healthcare and research more closely at the data level. This makes the "DIM.RUHR" science project, which aims to strengthen the competent handling of healthcare data in outpatient care, more relevant than ever. After developing a theoretical concept in the first year of the project, the consortium and associated partners recently met at the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) to start the implementation phase with concrete measures.

Using medical data effectively and comprehensively to improve research and care

Whether in cancer or dementia research - in many medical fields, digital health data offers great potential to improve the treatment of patients. One key element of the new legislation will be the introduction of electronic patient records from 2025. On the other hand, a central data access and coordination centre for the use of health data is planned - this is in line with the goals of DIM.RUHR to network medical information and use it effectively. Prof. Dr Sven Meister, holder of the Chair of Health Informatics at the UW/H, underlines the importance of the project with the words: "It is essential to consider the care areas as key locations for the interprofessional use of health data. In order to effectively utilise the potential for research and healthcare, both scientists and healthcare providers must be trained in a practical manner."

A central task of DIM.RUHR is therefore to develop teaching and learning materials for the further education and training of various target groups - e.g. medical students, nursing scientists and medical assistants. The materials developed are to be used and evaluated at various locations of the consortium partners for (further) education. Another important focus of the project is to create an experimental space in which learners can try out the handling of healthcare-related data in a realistic environment. The data will be stored in a health data repository specially developed during the course of the project. In addition, start-up grants will be awarded to young scientists who wish to work on data science research questions in the healthcare sector.

Further information:

The project "DIM.RUHR: Data competence centre for the interprofessional use of health data in the Ruhr metropolis" involves the University of Witten/Herdecke, the Ruhr University Bochum, ORCA.nrw, the Bochum University of Applied Sciences, the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering and the ZB MED Information Centre for Life Sciences. The aim is to strengthen the competent handling of healthcare-related data. The focus is on outpatient care. DIM.RUHR is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and financed by the European Union - NextGenerationEU under the funding code: 16DKZ2008A - DIM-RUHR.

The project is divided into three main categories: Teaching/Learning, Research and Networking. Each of these categories contributes to realising the vision of a digital health data ecosystem and sustainably strengthening data literacy in the healthcare sector. DIM.RUHR also aims to network closely with national initiatives and plans to organise regional and national networking events in order to build networks and achieve its goals.

To the project page: DIM.RUHR | Witten/Herdecke University (uni-wh.de)