Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care is funding the medical digitization project with 20 million euros over 5 years.
State Minister Melanie Huml announced today the signing of the contract with BioM and the funding of the DigiMed Bayern project (press release dated October 30th, 2018).
The project DigiMed Bayern should serve for the development of a personalized medicine in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The five-year lighthouse project within the program BAYERN DIGITAL focuses on the common disease atherosclerosis, which is the leading cause of death in Germany. The scientific management of the project is led by the German Heart Centre Munich (DHM).
DigiMed Bayern uses clinical and epidemiological data, which are complemented with comprehensive molecular data, in particular based on "omics technologies" such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. For the integration, analysis and use of the resulting "big data", a secure and sustainable digital infrastructure will be established. As a direct result in the health care system, the project aims, among others, at concrete improvements in health management, prediction, diagnostics and therapy. In addition, DigiMed Bayern shall be sustainable and transferable to other institutions and disease areas. Statements from the ethics committee as well as from the state data protection officer were already extensively considered in the project design.
The project’s scientific leader, Prof. Dr. med. Heribert Schunkert, is Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases and Medical Director of the DHM. The executive direction and project coordination are led by BioM, the coordinating body for innovations in medical biotechnology. In addition to DHM and BioM, DigiMed Bayern includes consortium partners from the clinics in the field of heart and stroke diseases as well as world-leading research institutes from Bavaria (alphabetically):
Department of Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry
Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich
Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Hospital rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich
Faculty of Law, University of Augsburg
German Heart Foundation
Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Center Munich
Institute of Human Genetics, Helmholtz Center Munich
Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich
Institute of Informatics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Institute of Technology-Theology-Natural Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Leibniz Supercomputing Center
Prof. Dr. Horst Domdey, Managing Director of BioM, comments: "The opportunities of digitization are enormous for the healthcare system, for patients and for the Bavarian economy. DigiMed Bayern is the logical development from the Munich leading-edge biotechnology cluster "m4 - personalized medicine and targeted therapies". We are pleased that BioM, together with the German Heart Centre Munich and other outstanding institutions, was able to initiate this strong consortium and will now have the role as coordinator. The mandate by the Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care and its comprehensive funding are important contributions to the implementation of a medicine of the future."
More information: www.digimed-bayern.de