Healthy information Technology
The SOA MED project run by the Humboldt University (HU) Department of Computer Science deals with software architectures for the future. The Fraunhofer Institute FIRST researches into assistance systems for the senior age group, and the company Conworx makes sure that diagnostic and administrative processes run smoothly in clinics: IT for the health sector made in Adlershof.
When asked to describe the benefits of the IT solutions provided by his company Conworx Technology GmbH, Managing Director Roman Rosenkranz replied: “Every hospital has a free hand in its allocation of equipment and processes, but can network them all nonetheless.” Whether local or end to end solutions this specialist in laboratory and medical engineering develops its healthcare IT for the organisation of diagnostic and administrative processes in Adlershof. Rosenkranz confessed that the primary reason for settling here was the proximity to computer sciences at the HU. Now employing thirty personnel and running service locations in South Germany and Great Britain the company caters to over half of the university clinics in Germany in addition to many hospitals.
This fundamental trend towards open IT solutions is also confirmed by Dr Michael John of Fraunhofer FIRST. Together with six colleagues and twenty eight partners from research and industry he runs the new research project Smart-Senior for assistance systems designed specifically for this age group. Although this too is a platform for networking telemedical applications this takes place at “another health location”, as he puts it, explaining that SmartSenior is intended to enable the elderly– whether sprightly pensioners or the chronically ill – to move around their accustomed environment as freely and independently as possible of healthcare facilities. Some example applications John names are stroke rehabilitation, peritoneal dialysis, pain therapy, but also fall prevention. Also smart phones would be “an interesting target platform”, he explained, seeing in data protection a particular focus of the development work.
Quality software is also meant by Professor Wolfgang Reisig of the HU Department of Computer Science when he talks of the postgraduate programme SOAMED, an acronym for service oriented architectures for integrating software assisted processes in the example fields of health and medical engineering. From April 2010 he intends to handle with his PhD students primarily issues that go beyond purely technical aspects, i.e. on how well services intercommunicate. He explained that it was necessary to develop a theoretical basis if we are to handle successfully the large number of processes that are still uncoordinated today. As long as a sound basis is not provided by theory and principles in software architecture, said Reisig, “its practice will just run where it will” and “nobody will know how to control it,” adding that it will not stop just at IT solutions on the health sector.
Klaus Oberzig
Links:
www.conworx.com
www.first.fraunfofer.de
www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/forschung/gebiete/wbi/soamed.html