DISTANCE:PRO

The “DISTANCE:PRO – Digital Smart Hub for Advanced Connected Care:Pro(fessional)” project further expands the German health data network. Building on the predecessor project DISTANCE, regional healthcare providers are being integrated into the secure, interoperable research data exchange framework of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII). This allows care data to be aggregated in compliance with data protection regulations and made available for research, AI models, and digital applications. Underlying this is the vision of creating a sustainable ecosystem that enriches patient care throughout the entire treatment pathway (patient journey) with a personalized and, above all, data-driven component. To this end, the existing DISTANCE HUB is to be expanded into a so-called Extended Data Integration Center (XTDIZ – EXTENDED DIZ), which will assume the tasks and services of a DIZ independently of the operator and relieve the local IT resources of healthcare provide.

The Challenge

Setting up an XTDIZ initially requires the same MII compliance framework as that of a conventional data integration center (DIZ) affiliated with a university hospital. The particular challenge lies in the architecture of such a vendor-neutral concept, which enables secure data exchange among heterogeneous systems, drives the standardization of data formats, and remains as sustainable, beneficial, and low-effort a solution as possible. Furthermore, various aspects related to the technical operation of a DIZ must also be taken into account and adequately supported in this form of an XTDIZ, for example, to meet research data usage requests in a resource-efficient manner.

Our Services

As part of DISTANCE:PRO, Fraunhofer ISST is responsible for the conceptual design, software architecture, and implementation of the overall technical architecture for XTDIZ. This includes the necessary components, interfaces, and processes required for interoperable data exchange within the new ecosystem, as well as the onboarding of new partners and the integration of new infrastructures. Fraunhofer ISST is also entrusted with the implementation of operational and organizational requirements. Another task of Fraunhofer ISST is the development of a technical and organizational solution for committee-driven use-and-access control of research data requests from the overarching MII infrastructure. Particular emphasis is placed on the digitization of processes and their tool-supported execution

The Result

DISTANCE:PRO also integrates regional healthcare structures into the German healthcare data network. This brings them closer to university medical centers and makes them an equal part of the interoperable research data exchange within the Medical Informatics Initiative. The XTDIZ represents a sustainable and scalable solution—another key building block for creating a cross-sectoral ecosystem that connects research and care. The burden on connected hospitals and physician networks is kept to a minimum. They are provided with tools to simplify and digitize the tasks at hand. For research in Germany, this access to previously hard-to-reach but important data from regional healthcare providers represents a decisive step toward improving medical research. In particular, the availability of this data opens up new possibilities for predictive health research and the AI models it employs The scope is thus expanded to include a central part of our primary and routine care that has remained underrepresented until now. Ultimately, this represents significant progress toward improving current and future healthcare in Germany.

The Partners

RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Surgical Intensive Care and Intermediate Care
Jena University Hospital, Institute for Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Data Sciences
Leipzig University Hospital
Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Health Sciences/Department of Human Medicine, Witten
St. Franziskus Foundation, Münster
German Sepsis Aid e.V.
German Society for Telemedicine e.V.

Funding

Funding Body: Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR)
Grant Number: 01ZZ2503D
·Duration: October 1, 2025 – December 31, 2027