Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Biobank for Translational Medicine: Standard Operating Procedures for Optimal Sample Management
Published on: November 30, 2022
Unlocking Data for Clinical Research - The German i2b2 Experience
T Ganslandt1, S Mate, K Helbing
1Center for Medical Information and Communication, Erlangen University Hospital , Erlangen, Germany.
Objective:
Data from clinical care is increasingly being used for research purposes. The i2b2 platform has been introduced in some US research communities as a tool for data integration and querying by clinical users. The purpose of this project was to assess the applicability of i2b2 in Germany regarding use cases, functionality and integration with privacy enhancing tools.
Methods:
A set of four research usage scenarios was chosen, including the transformation and import of ontology and fact data from existing clinical data collections into i2b2 v1.4 instances. Query performance was measured in comparison to native SQL queries. A setup and administration tool for i2b2 was developed. An extraction tool for CDISC ODM data was programmed. Interfaces for the TMF privacy enhancing tools (PID Generator, Pseudonymization Service) were implemented.
Results:
Data could be imported in all tested scenarios from various source systems, including the generation of i2b2 ontology definitions. The integration of TMF privacy enhancing tools was possible without modification of the platform. Limitations were found regarding query performance in comparison to native SQL and certain temporal queries.
Conclusions:
i2b2 is a viable platform for data query tasks in use cases typical for networked medical research in Germany. The integration of privacy enhancing tools facilitates the use of i2b2 within established data protection concepts. Entry barriers should be lowered by providing tools for simplified setup and import of medical standard formats like CDISC ODM.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Clinical Trials
There are four phases in a clinical trial. A phase one...
Clinical Trials: Overview
Bioequivalence studies: Biowaivers
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast, controlled...
Preclinical Development: Overview

