Using the German National Medication Plan for Clinical Studies in Practice-Based Research Networks.

The German National Medication Plan (GNMP) can be a valuable and interoperable data source for clinical studies, due to its digital specification and mandatory provisioning for chronically ill patients. Digital transfer of a patients current GNMP from the Patient Data Management System (PDMS) into electronic case report forms would avoid error prone manual data capturing. It is also essential for studies in practice-based research networks (PBRN), where data capturing must have as little impact as possible on everyday practice.

DESAM-ForNet Portal: A Novel Infrastructure to Integrate Distributed Information from Practice-Based Research Networks in the German Healthcare System.

Currently the German healthcare system does not have a generic structure to answer research questions in primary care through clinical studies. The DESAM-ForNet initiative was founded as an association of German Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRN), to propose an appropriate and feasible solution. Aim is the integration of distributed, consensual information from practices into a single point of contact.

FoPraNet-BW: An Infrastructure for Clinical Studies in Practice-Based Research Networks in the German Health System.

General practice-based research networks have become an integral tool to gain medical knowledge from primary care in many countries. For this purpose, a scalable IT-infrastructure is presented considering the limiting peculiarities in the German health system and enabling GPs to participate in clinical studies based on their patient population. The infrastructure consists of a central study management server and local clients for each practice.

Implementing Remote Patient Monitoring for Patients During Systemic Cancer Therapy.

Mobile monitoring of outpatients during cancer therapy becomes possible through technological advancements. This study leveraged a new remote patient monitoring app for in-between systemic therapy sessions. Patients' evaluation showed that the handling is feasible.

TELEDerm: Implementing store-and-forward teledermatology consultations in general practice: Results of a cluster randomized trial.

Background: Although teledermatology has been proven internationally to be an effective and safe addition to the care of patients in primary care, there are few pilot projects implementing teledermatology in routine outpatient care in Germany. The aim of this cluster randomized controlled trial was to evaluate whether referrals to dermatologists are reduced by implementing a store-and-forward teleconsultation system in general practitioner practices.

Methods: Eight counties were cluster randomized to the intervention and control conditions.

Improving cooperation between general practitioners and dermatologists via telemedicine: study protocol of the cluster-randomized controlled TeleDerm study.

Background: Internationally, teledermatology has proven to be a viable alternative to conventional physical referrals. Travel cost and referral times are reduced while patient safety is preserved. Especially patients from rural areas benefit from this healthcare innovation.

Design, Implementation and Operation of a Reading Center Platform for Clinical Studies.

Clinical reading centers provide expertise for consistent, centralized analysis of medical data gathered in a distributed context. Accordingly, appropriate software solutions are required for the involved communication and data management processes. In this work, an analysis of general requirements and essential architectural and software design considerations for reading center information systems is provided.

A generic concept for the implementation of medical image retrieval systems.

This paper presents a technical framework to support the development and installation of system for content-based image retrieval in medical applications (IRMA). A strict separation of feature extraction, feature storage, feature comparison, and the user interfaces is suggested. This allows to reuse implemented components in different retrieval algorithms, which improves software quality, shortens the development cycle for applications, and allows to introduce standardized end-user interfaces.

A generic concept for the implementation of medical image retrieval systems.

This work presents mechanisms to support the development and installation of content-based image retrieval in medical applications (IRMA). A strict separation of feature extraction, feature storage, feature comparison, and the user interfaces is suggested. The concept and implementation of a system following these guidelines is described.

IRMA--content-based image retrieval in medical applications.

The impact of content-based access to medical images is frequently reported but existing systems are designed for only a particular modality or context of diagnosis. Contrarily, our concept of image retrieval in medical applications (IRMA) aims at a general structure for semantic content analysis that is suitable for numerous applications in case-based reasoning or evidence-based medicine. Within IRMA, stepwise processing results in six layers of information modeling (raw data layer, registered data layer, feature layer, scheme layer, object layer, knowledge layer) incorporating medical expert knowledge.