CHILI Newsletter No. 4/2010
MRN wins BMBF competition "Health Regions of the Future" — CHILI is involved too!
Heidelberg, May 5, 2010 The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced today, at the "Hauptstadtkongress 2010 Medizin und Gesundheit" (2010 Capital Congress for Medicine and Health) in Berlin, that the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region (MRN) is one of the three winners of the second round of the BMBF competition "Gesundheitsregionen der Zukunft" (Health Regions of the Future), for which the BMBF is providing funding amounting to €22m over the next four years.
The MRN's entry "Raum für Gesundheit" (Space for health) aims to achieve a sustainable improvement in medical care and the health of the region's population by actively involving them in the treatment process by using state-of-the-art information and communication technology. This includes the introduction of a personal, cross-institutional patient record (PEPA), which is used to connect patients and everyone they interact with in the health system in a network, and the study of relevant aspects relating to the PEPA.
The main objective is to link health service providers using state-of-the-art information and communication technology, while at the same time strengthening the patient's position. Apart from improving health care and benefitting patients, the project also promises benefits for the research community. Along with the establishment of the necessary IT infrastructure, the introduction of a PEPA containing all of the data relating to the patient's care, is of crucial importance in this context. "This gives people the opportunity for active, informed and responsible participation in the health system. This allows patients to decide for themselves which data contained in the electronic patient record should be available to whom. This boosts the patient's involvement in the treatment process", explains Professor Björn Bergh, Director of the Center for Information and Medical Technology at Heidelberg University Hospital.
CHILI GmbH is a partner in this project and is responsible for the seamless integration of medical images with HIS/RIS/PACS systems on the basis of IHE profiles.
Read the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region's press release here.
