Multiple sclerosis - using patient data, optimising therapies

A pioneering project within the Medical Informatics Initiative, DIFUTURE is an innovative platform that aims to revolutionise the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). By using state-of-the-art technologies and data-driven approaches, DIFUTURE enables more precise and personalised therapy design for MS patients.

What is Difuture doing?

In order to better research and treat multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, DIFUTURE has brought together numerous data from patient care and research and made it searchable across all locations. This opens up new possibilities for health research. In addition to setting up a decentralised research data infrastructure in Germany, the DIFUTURE partners – together with other sites in all consortia – are involved in a wide range of use cases that demonstrate the benefits of data infrastructures and analyses for medical care.

Our projects

Neurology

Patient data was standardised and analysed for early detection and precise prediction of the course of multiple sclerosis. This enables the timely initiation of customised therapies. At the same time, the Parkinson’s application case improved understanding and individualised treatment by opening up new analysis options through access to external data.

Oncology

The exchange and joint analysis of clinical and biomedical data – e.g. on genetic changes in tumours – helps doctors to treat cancer more effectively. The aim is to personalise cancer medicine even more across Germany in line with the National Decade Against Cancer.

Cardiology

Modern IT processes combine complex biosignals (such as ECG data) with diverse clinical information (such as blood pressure values and medications) to create a wealth of data. The analysis of this data should help doctors to identify risks for cardiovascular diseases more precisely and improve personalised care.

Lung diseases

By analysing data, doctors can better diagnose chronic lung diseases such as asthma and COPD and treat them more effectively.

Infection control

Patients should be better protected against bacterial blood infections in hospital. An automated data analysis system is designed to help assess their individual infection risks. It relieves the burden on medical staff and helps them to initiate preventive protective measures at an early stage if necessary.

Drug interactions

Innovative IT solutions make a significant contribution to optimising drug safety and therapies. In ward pharmacies, they enable the early detection of risky combinations of active ingredients, thereby better protecting patients from unwanted side effects.

The MIRACUM DIFUTURE Journal

In the current MIRACUM DIFUTURE Journal #2 you can find out for the first time about the current work progress, key topics and projects of all four consortia MIRACUM, DIFUTURE, HiGHmed and SMITH!