TMF - technology and method platform for networked medical research

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TMF - Technology and method platform for networked medical research eV
(TMF)
logo
legal form eV, non-profit
founding April 29, 1999 as a telematics platform for medical research networks in Berlin
Seat Berlin
purpose Supporting networked medical research
Chair Michael Krawczak
Wolfgang Hoffmann
Michael Kiehntopf
Managing directors Sebastian C. Semler
sales 2–3.5 million euros
Employees 30th
Members 91 institutions
(2011)
Website www.tmf-ev.de

The TMF - technology and method platform for networked medical research ( TMF for short ) is a non-profit organization (non-profit association) based in Berlin. Your task is to improve the organizational, legal and technological requirements for clinical, epidemiological and translational research.

The association is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Members are supra-regional medical research networks, networked university and non-university research institutes or centers, method centers, regional joint projects and cooperative study groups. As of June 6, 2011, the association claims to have 91 members.

history

The association was initiated in 1999 under the name “Telematics Platform for Medical Research Networks” as a cross-sectional funding project of the BMBF for the large funding measures for joint research in the late 1990s ( competence networks in medicine , coordination centers for clinical studies , national genome research network ). In this phase, the platform was anchored in terms of funding at the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and System Technology ISST and was headed by a coordination council. In August 2003, TMF eV was founded, its own legal form, which from January 1, 2004 had its headquarters and office in the federal capital Berlin.

From the end of 2003 to mid-2010, the number of member associations increased from 31 to 81, according to their own information. In connection with this, the thematic spectrum of the TMF, which initially focused primarily on IT infrastructure issues, broadened. Today, the topics range from legal and ethical framework conditions and questions of IT infrastructure to quality management and standards for clinical studies (including medical technology) as well as the topic of biobanks and molecular medicine to the problem of interlinking research and care or questions of Association coordination and public relations. In April 2010, the general meeting decided to rename the TMF because the term “telematics platform” no longer did justice to this broad spectrum, according to its own statements. The new name "TMF - Technology and Method Platform for Networked Medical Research eV", which covers the tasks and topics of the TMF in a more specific way, was entered in the register of associations at the Charlottenburg District Court in Berlin in June 2010 .

structure

The central decision-making body is the general assembly, which delegates strategic control to a nine-member board from among its ranks. The board of directors is the executive body of the TMF and represents it in public. On strategic issues, the Executive Board consults the Council of Funders, in which the BMBF, the project management body for health research at DLR and the German Research Foundation (DFG) are represented and which, among other things, also the proper use of the funds made available by the members, which are predominantly from public subsidies come from controlled. The advisory board is also responsible for the exchange with other relevant bodies and institutions in the health care sector. The office is located in Berlin-Mitte.

activity

The association publishes, among other things, expert reports, guidelines and IT applications as well as training and consulting offers. Selected results are published in the series of publications. According to their own statements, the products are developed by the member associations who come together in the interdisciplinary working groups. According to the company, the aim of this cooperation is to mutually benefit from existing experience, to avoid duplication of work and to develop professional solutions. According to the company, the aim is to create a consensus in the research community on these solutions and to ensure their consistent use and long-term availability. The goals of the association are:

  • to make methodical know-how and infrastructures widely available for medical research,
  • to strengthen harmonization, interoperability and quality management in networked medical research through appropriate infrastructure, guidelines and services,
  • to strengthen collaboration in German medical research and German researchers in international collaborations,
  • to support the continuation and sustainability of academic medical research projects and
  • To make a contribution to the sensible use of resources in publicly funded medical research by helping to avoid duplicate developments and organizing the reuse of existing solutions.

With its products and services, TMF primarily addresses non-commercial, academic - university and non-university - research in Germany. All downloadable products and results are available on the TMF website. In addition, selected concepts, guidelines and help texts are published in the TMF series of publications. Individual software tools are only available through direct contact with the TMF office, which then also takes care of implementation and use.

The association has developed usage and license conditions for the distribution of its products, which basically guarantee the free availability of the results for medical research and at the same time ensure that feedback from users flows back to them and can thus be taken into account in the further development of the products.

Examples:

  • Tools for the conception of data protection-compliant data collections: Generic data protection concepts
  • Tools for pseudonymization: PID generator
  • Tools for standardized data processing in clinical studies: MAKS
  • Tools for the creation and approval of medical care guidelines: Guideline portal
  • Tools for quality management and the harmonization of work processes in clinical studies: SOPs

The association operates research infrastructures such as the German Biobank Register or - together with the University of Münster and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute - the national research platform for zoonoses.

Working groups

The working groups promote the exchange of experience among researchers and offer support

  • on questions of the concrete implementation of data protection and ethical guidelines,
  • to set up research infrastructures such as databases for research registers and biobanks,
  • for the strategic use of information technology for process support as well as for scientific evaluation,
  • on legal questions in many respects, for example on contract law within networks, on patient consent or on questions of exploitation,
  • on issues relating to the organization and management of research networks and their projects as well
  • on issues of budget management, financing and the sustainability of network structures built with public funds.

Currently (as of November 2012) nine working groups are active:

Members

According to its own statements, members of the association are university and non-university medical research institutions and research networks. This includes representatives of virtually every major funding line for collaborative research since 1998:

swell

  • Findings from the laboratory should help the patient to recover more quickly [1] . In: Tagesspiegel supplement "Future of Health", June 9, 2011
  • Semler, SC, Schütt, A. (2010): Networking researchers, providing solutions, avoiding duplication of work. In: Professional Association of Medical Computer Scientists eV, German Association of Medical Documentaries eV (Ed.): Forum of Medicine_Documentation and Medicine_Informatics. Issue 2/2010 (pp. 175-179).
  • Krüger-Brand, HE (2010): IT strategy required. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt , vol. 107, issue 17, April 30, 2010
  • Zylka-Menhorn, V. (2009): Networked research is the model of the future. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt , vol. 106, issue 27, July 3, 2009.
  • Grätzel von Grätz, P., (2008): Research on demand. In: Financial Times Deutschland of April 10, 2008

Web links