Unlocking Real-World Health Data from Non-University Locations Through Effective Provision of Tools and Knowledge

The Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) in Germany has pioneered platforms such as the National Portal for Medical Research Data (FDPG) to enhance the accessibility of data from clinical routine care for research across both university and non-university healthcare settings. This study explores the efficacy of the Medical Informatics Hub in Saxony (MiHUBx) services by integrating Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH (KC) with the FDPG, leveraging the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Core Data Set of the MII to standardize and harmonize data from disparate source systems.

The employed procedures include deploying installation packages to convert data into FHIR format and utilizing the Research Data Repository for structured data storage and exchange within the clinical infrastructure of KC.

Our results demonstrate successful integration, the development of a comprehensive deployment diagram, additionally, it was demonstrated that the non-university site can report clinical data to the FDPG.

The discussion reflects on the practical application of this integration, highlighting its potential scalability to even smaller healthcare facilities and to pave the way to access to more medical data for research. This exemplary demonstration of the interplay of different tools provides valuable insights into technical and operational challenges, setting a precedent for future expansions and contributing to the democratization of medical data access.