Using Information and Communication Technology for Patients and Research

The “Medical Informatics” section examines the possibilities of information and communication technology to electronically transmit, store, and interpret laboratory findings. The goal is to improve patient treatment and support medical and laboratory medical research. Information obtained from laboratory tests must be presented to the right person at the right time, in the right place, and in the right context. Conversely, new data-rich procedures in laboratory medicine, e.g., from the field of genetics, can benefit when requests and additional patient information are transmitted electronically to the laboratory in a structured manner.

The use of established standards such as LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) is a prerequisite for enabling a syntactically and semantically unambiguous exchange of laboratory findings. Nevertheless, correct interpretation without laboratory medical knowledge is often difficult, especially when analyses from different laboratories are combined. To provide assistance here, the “Medical Informatics” section also deals with quality assurance and new data models for laboratory findings.

To address these topics, the “Medical Informatics” section cooperates with other associations such as the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) and the TMF – Technology and Method Platform for Networked Medical Research. Members of the section are specifically involved in the Interoperability Working Group of the Medical Informatics Initiative .