From Data Holder to Intermediary Entity: An Approach for the Evolving Role of Data Integration Centers in the...

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) offers new possibilities regarding cross-border healthcare and research. While this is highly beneficial for patients and researchers, it requires the implementation of extensive interoperability aspects on a national and regional level. In Germany, this poses major challenges especially for the outpatient sector. In this setting, we propose an approach for an evolving role of Data Integration Centers (DIC) that have been established in the context of the Medical Informatics Initiative. In its core the tasks of a DIC will expand from data integration at university hospitals and data preparation for research to become an IT infrastructure provider for the region, thus supporting intersectoral secondary data use and cross-sectoral care. In this context, the DIC takes on the role of an intermediary entity within the EHDS. Within the DIC infrastructure a medical health cloud will be created, comprising applications for data integration, standardization, and analysis for research purposes, as well as digital applications for process optimization and support of daily work.