IMPETUS

The BMBF-funded junior research group (IMPETUS) organizes around the topic of medical data and its integration into a data integration center (DIZ). Image and other multimedia data are integrated into the medical DIZ of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein. This involves DICOM and non-DICOM data. In today’s medicine, imaging methods play a decisive role in patient care and research. However, only data from certain methods (e.g. MRI, CT, ultrasound) or clinical areas (e.g. radiology, cardiology) are stored in central DICOM-PACS (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, Picture Archiving and Communication System). The majority is either not stored in an IT system at all or is only available in departmental and special systems and then mostly in non-DICOM formats. In addition, there are other multimedia objects such as signal representations (e.g. ECG, EEG) or audio files (e.g. ENT, neurology) but also multimedia findings that contain both images and text parts. The aim of the project is to extend the MeDIC (Medical Data Integration Center), which was set up in the UKSH as part of the HiGHmed project, to enable the integration and use of all multimedia objects and findings, regardless of the format in which they are available. The following challenges will be addressed: 1) to reduce the amount of data, copying and referencing approaches will be combined; 2) both special IT systems and individual medical devices must be connected; 3) for non-DICOM objects, descriptive information must be additionally recorded and stored (e.g., sidecar files); 4) for DICOM and non-DICOM objects, additional tagging will be integrated (e.g., according to report types or specific image types); 5) multimedia data sets can be stored and bundled in study contexts; 6) search functions should also be possible via pattern recognition methods (content-based image retrieval); 7) a multimodal viewing solution for DICOM and non-DICOM objects is required; 8) as many elements and process steps should be solved by means of inter-national interoperability standards.

PI
Prof. Dr. Björn Bergh
Head of Junior Research Group
Prof. Dr. Björn Schreiweis
Funding Agency
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Project Period
2021 bis 2026
Amount of Funding
about 2.1 Million Euros