10 Years MII: 'Networked Structure Instead of Patchwork'
Ten years after its launch, the Medical Informatics Initiative celebrates a nationwide data infrastructure and also relies on trust.
Matthias Hauer, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space, and Sebastian Claudius Semler, Managing Director of the Technology and Method Platform for Networked Medical Research, side by side.
(Image: TMF)
Ten years ago, the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) was launched with the goal of networking Germany's fragmented health data landscape and making it usable for research and care. What was characterized by heterogeneous systems, legal hurdles, and a lack of standards back then is now a mature data infrastructure.
At the start of the anniversary symposium, Prof. Björn Eskofier from the LMU University Hospital of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich made it clear “that data is naturally the basis for modern, precise, and personalized medicine.” At the same time, he showed how data protection and data use can be combined, for example, through distributed approaches: “that the data initially remains under local control in the individual [...] clinics and yet a distributed analysis is made possible.” However, many AI models have not yet made it into clinical practice: “There is no algorithm problem in medicine, there is a market placement problem,” said Eskofier.
Sebastian C. Semler, Managing Director of the Technology and Method Platform for Networked Medical Research (TMF), looked back at the initiative's development. It began “when Germany had a significant backlog in digitalization in healthcare and in the area of e-health” and data could hardly be used across systems. “We have created a nationwide federated data infrastructure,” said Semler. This includes data integration centers at all university hospitals, a common core dataset, and the Research Data Portal Health (FDPG) as a central point of contact. According to Semler, data is now being used, which is a crucial step beyond pure infrastructure development. He also emphasized the importance of collaboration as a foundation for the future.
“Success only possible through trust”
In his subsequent address, Parliamentary State Secretary Matthias Hauer of the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) stated: “We all know that data is the raw material of the future.” The MII has shown “what is possible when science, healthcare, and politics jointly embrace the digital transformation.” At the same time, he pointed to concrete progress, thanks to which “more than 200 million vital data points from intensive care medicine” are available. Overall, “from the more than 500 million euros in support,” a powerful infrastructure has been built. More than 450,000 people have already voluntarily provided their data. “This is a success that is only possible through trust,” said Hauer.
Initiatives such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS) or the BMFTR's High-Tech Agenda are intended to make more data available for research. According to Hauer, a “strong networked structure” has emerged from a “patchwork.” The MII anniversary falls within the Science Year 2026, which is themed “Medicine of the Future” and focuses on medicine that is “preventive, personalized, digital, and participatory.” In this context, experts are already discussing current trends in digital health and their social consequences.
(mack)
