CCP-IT (DKTK)
The German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) is one of six German Centres for Health Research (DZG) funded by the BMBF.
The cross-location networking of the consortium is made possible by the IT of the Clinical Communication Platform (CCP-IT), which is developed in a separate working group consisting of at least one member per partner location.
Data from tumour documentation and biomaterial banks can be contributed while preserving data protection and sovereignty for the consortium, thanks to the federated network architecture also from patients before the DKTK was founded. Thus, feasibility studies and recruitment of studies are supported not only during, but also before their application to the DKTK.
MAGIC
The "Guidelines for data protection in medical research projects - Generic Solutions from the TMF 2.0" provides complete and consistent guidelines for creating medical research federations, with an emphasis on data protection.
Freely-available implementations already exist for some of the central IT components proposed in the guidelines. These do not, however, cover all of the functions described in the document. The goal of the MAGIC-Federation is to develop the most important components that do not yet exist in the realms of identity management, permission management and consent management. This will be done based on already-existing software, and the results will be made available to the scientific community.
Nationales Metadata Repository (NMDR)
Establishing a collaborative National Metadata Repository (NMDR) for clinical and epidemiological research in Germany, funded by the DFG, is one of our strategic goals. The data in this repository should be quality-assured, permenant, neutral and freely available. These requirements are the outcome of an analysis based on a survey of 30 users in the scope of a TMF project. The main audience for the NMDR are clinical researchers planning studies, registers or cohorts, with a requirement for data for exceptional quality.
BBMRI-ERIC
The Pan-European Biobank and Biomolecular Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC) is a distributed biomedical and life science structure for the sustainable storage and dissemination of biobank samples and related data in Europe. The BBMRI-ERIC provides access to partner biobank and biomolecular resources and their expertise and services.
German Biobank Alliance
As part of the German Biobanking Alliance, a distributed team of 20 computer scientists is creating an IT platform for the exchange of biosamples so that large multicentre sample collections can be compiled for research projects. Here, the biobanks are connected both within the German consortium and with international biobank infrastructures such as BBMRI-ERIC.
NNGM
In the future, all patients in Germany with advanced lung cancer will be able to obtain access to molecular diagnostics and innovative therapies, via a national network. To implement this, 15 university cancer centers will combine forces in the national Network for Genomic Medicine (nNGM) – including all centers of the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) and all oncological centers of excellence currently funded by the DKH. The basis for all distributed processes is a secure networking of the bridgeheads of the Clinical Communication Platform (CCP-IT). Thanks to its extension via the initiative Connecting Comprehensive Cancer Centers (C4), this platform includes all of the nNGM centres as well.