The first policy briefing on “Technology and Security” by the German Israeli Health Forum for Artificial Intelligence (GIHF-AI) underlines the relevance of interoperability, linkage and availability of medical data in the context of innovation, digitization and the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Whether measuring blood pressure, X-rays and ECG examinations in medical practices and hospitals, or genetic analysis in research institutions – an overwhelming amount of medical data is generated every day. The potential that big data in the healthcare sector holds for medical care and thus for patients is enormous.
It will still be a few years before patient data in Germany is digitized with the help of the electronic patient file (ePA) and is available for research, for example via the Research Data Center (FDZ) at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). Neither scientists nor patients who could benefit from more efficient therapies have this time.
In addition to building an efficient, research-friendly data infrastructure in Germany, it is essential to enter into international scientific cooperation with highly digitized countries such as Israel. For more than 20 years, the data of the four health insurance companies (Kupot Holim), hospitals and health organizations have been available in digital form and are used in research into diseases and drug development. International data standards and data protection-sensitive linking methods make it possible.
