[Real-time data from medical care settings to guide public health action]

Real-time data from medical care settings play an increasing role in guiding public health action. The COVID-19 pandemic is a good example; public health decisions depend on current data from the various clinical care settings. The automated processing and communication of health-related data is essential to ensure continuity of reporting and safe resources. So far, various technical, formal, and organizational challenges help back the development of digitally automated real-time systems with scientific quality standards. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed sustainable system developments since it began in early 2020.This article describes how a real-time data system should be structured so that automated data processing is possible. Important aspects in the consolidation of the data and their preparation and communication are presented. The processes implemented for handling routine data from emergency departments in real time and making it available to public health actors is described. As an example, we present the cooperation between the emergency admission registry of the Aktionsbündnis für Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie in Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin (AKTIN), the Universität Magdeburg, and the RWTH Aachen as well as the Surveillance Monitor (SUMO) hosted at the Robert Koch Institute.The development of modern systems for processing research data in real-time from medical care settings can only succeed through the cooperation of a wide variety of actors. An important basis for long-term success is the development of a legal framework.