Research and work areas

Head: Prof. Dr. Neeltje van den Berg

In the ‘Regional Care and eHealth’ research area, we deal with issues and developments to improve and sustainably ensure regional care, particularly in rural areas. The focus is on geographical analyses of accessibility and utilisation, interprofessional cooperation between healthcare professions and telemedicine and eHealth. Innovative care concepts, e.g. in the areas of paediatrics, psychiatry and geriatrics as well as palliative care, are implemented and evaluated in model regions.

Part of the research area is the Integrated Functional Area Telemedicine (IFT). Here, telemedical care concepts are developed and implemented in co-operation with specialist clinics and other clinical service providers, e.g. for patients with mental illnesses.

Further information under the research information system (FIS)

Together with the ICM, the Rostock/Greifswald site of the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) develops innovative concepts to improve the care of cognitively impaired people or people suffering from dementia and their relatives, and evaluates these in terms of effectiveness and health economic efficiency. The aim is to transfer successful projects into routine care. The joint research work covers the entire course of the disease, from the prevention of cognitive impairment to the care of people with advanced dementia. Care research at the DZNE is multidisciplinary and interprofessional and works closely with basic, clinical and population-orientated research. Four DZNE working groups are currently conducting research at the Greifswald site:

• Working Group Translational Health Services Research (Head: Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Hoffmann): Topics are the scientific evaluation of innovative care concepts with regard to efficacy and cost-effectiveness as well as the implementation of translational research projects for the transfer of successful concepts from research to routine care. Methodological research focuses on quality indicators of care, measurement of health and disease-related quality of life and patient preferences. Several projects concern research into extended nursing roles to take over medical activities.      Weitere Informationen
• Working Group Psychosocial Epidemiology and Public Health (Head: PD Dr. Francisca Rodriguez): The focus of the research is on psychosocial aspects in the living environment and in the organisation of life for prevention, but also in the care of people with dementia and their carers. This includes, for example, the professional environment, the pursuit of hobbies, social interactions and integration, strategies for coping with everyday life, creativity, music and social activities.             Weitere Informationen
• Interventional Care Research Group (Head: Prof. Dr. rer. med. Dipl.-Psych. René Thyrian): The focus of the research group is the development and evaluation of interventions with population effectiveness. The needs and requirements of those affected and of society are recorded and analysed, which can lead both to changes in standard care and to changes in the direction of research. The object of research is not only the person suffering from dementia, but also the supporting social environment (e.g. relatives), the care system (e.g. intersectoral management) and society (e.g. dementia strategies in institutions and in the region). Weitere Informationen
• Working Group Patient-Related Outcomes & Health Economics (Head: PD Dr. Dr. Bernhard Michalowsky): The focus is on the development and evaluation of patient- and care-relevant applications and health economic outcomes. The aim is to promote clinical and healthcare research as well as translational research at the DZNE. The working group develops structures for the efficient integration of healthcare stakeholders in research. Among other things, it coordinates the DZNE's Translational Network for Dementia Care Research (TaNDem). Weitere Informationen

Further information under the research information system (FIS) and under DZNE 

Management: Dr. Gunthard Stübs

The Central Data Management department of the NAKO Health Study (the largest German health study with 205,000 participants) is divided into three parts at the site: The Data Integration Centre (coordination: Dr Gunthard Stübs) deals with the design, implementation and operation of data collection tools, databases, interfaces and other applications for processing the medical interview and examination data of all participants, including metadata. The Trustee Office (coordination: Dipl.-Ing. Robert Wolff) develops and operates applications for the administration of personal identifying data, consents and all pseudonyms within the NAKO. It provides these primarily to the study centres but also to all other data-processing institutions of the NAKO. The Transfer Office develops web applications for the entire management of the NAKO's utilisation procedure, including the submission of data utilisation applications, their review and processing, as well as for the automated transfer of data to scientists.

Further information in the Research Information System (FIS)

Further Information under the research information system (FIS)

Coordination: Dr. Kerstin Weitmann

This research area focusses on issues relating to improving the care of patients with cancer.

The Central Agency for Cancer Registration (ZKR) forms the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Cancer Registry together with Registerstellen gGmbH and the Trustee Agency. The main tasks of the Central Agency include the cross-registry quality and completeness assurance of the data as well as the cross-site data evaluation on oncologically relevant issues on its own initiative and at the suggestion of stakeholders in oncological care and from the population in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The analyses produced by the CCNR are used for oncological health reporting, oncological quality assurance and answering questions from oncological care as well as evaluating the effectiveness of early detection and prevention. The aim is to increase cancer prevention, treatment and aftercare in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the population level.

Further information in the Research Information System (FIS)

Further information in the research information system (FIS)

Coordination: Dr. Marco Franze

This research area focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of behavioural and behavioural prevention measures in daycare and school settings.

The health goals of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are also evaluated in this research area. These relate to the entire lifespan and include three target clusters (Growing up healthy in M-V; Living and working healthy in M-V; Growing old healthy in M-V).

Further information in the research information system (FIS)

Project development/infrastructure sub-division (coordination: Dr Torsten Leddig)

Software Development and Community sub-area (coordination: Dr Martin Bialke)

The work and research area covers concepts, architectures and methods for the management of information infrastructures at the connection points of clinical data and research data. One research and development focus concerns the high-quality and effective implementation of ethical and data protection requirements. Further developments concern data acquisition and data management in multi-centre studies and a system for the assessment-based initiation and documentation of care interventions. The department provides methodological and technical contributions for a large number of research projects funded by the DFG, BMBF and the G-BA Innovation Fund in Germany and internationally. Research and developments in this area include conception and design as well as the operation of project-specific processes and solutions. Two main approaches are equally important: the in-house solution with its own data management and the concept and development partnership variant with external data management at partner institutions. A wide range of software developed in-house bridges the gap between open source and commercial universal software.

Further information in the research information system (FIS)

Head: Dana Stahl

The Trust office (in german Treuhandstelle - THS) of the University Medical Centre Greifswald (UMG) supports medical research in Germany and some European countries. Personally identifiable data is sensitive information that must be protected in the best possible way. This applies in particular to research with patient data in medical studies and registries. THS develops and operates specialised software to protect this personal data and thus offers data protection-compliant solutions for medical research: the rights and wishes of study participants and patients are safeguarded by electronic consent management and personally identifiable data is protected by the use of pseudonyms.

With its solutions, the UMG Trustee Centre is a partner in numerous German and international projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union (EU) as well as private donors. Examples include the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), the NAKO Health Study, the MIRACUM consortium of the Medical Informatics Funding Initiative and the Network of University Medicine (NUM). As a data trustee, THS forms the bridge between study participants, researchers and project partners.

Further information in the Research Information System (FIS)

Further informations you find in the Forschungsinformationssystem (FIS)