Communications Networks in Medicine

Motivation

The construction of a professional, computer-based communications structure will provide for the fast and efficient transfer of information between medical research centers and the medical base, and will allow research results to be carried over to patient care faster than ever before.

Objective

By establishing a communications infrastructure for the Competence Network Malignant Lymphoma, professional quality management for the diagnosis and therapy of lymphatic illnesses will be made available and integrated at the level of patient care. The potential for swift feedback between medical research and care is expected to contribute to the standardization of existing diagnosis and therapy processes. In this connection the following objectives arise:

• construction and secure operation of the IT systems in the communications center
• integration of the trial centers of the German lymphoma trial groups and the centers of the Competence Network
• integration of the Reference Center for Pathology and operation of the central pathology database
• integration of the Reference Center for Radiation Therapy

Methods and Implementation

The communications center in Leipzig is connected to the Internet directly behind a firewall. The connections to the network partners are primarily encrypted over the internet (Virtual Private Networks (VPN)) based on standardized transfer protocols (IP Security (IPSec) and Secure Shell (SSH)) or over a dedicated ISDN-router.

The Communications Network:

• permits geographically distributed expert groups to access the central database online and securely
• and provides for the secure, standardized and automated comparison of patient data from the central trial databases and the decentralized pathology databases with the central pathology database.

A two-tiered firewall architecture is realized in the communications center, dividing the local network into three areas:

• a public area, connected directly to the internet,
• an internal area
• and a secure area.

The database server and the backup server of the communications center are located in this secure area.

A reliable backup of the data inventor y of the Competence Network's central server has been set up in the communications center in Leipzig. In order to provide 24-hour availability, the Oracle databases are secured while in operation (online backup).

Further Developments

Recently, several sites have switched from an ISDN connection to a secure internet connection with IPSec-VPN, due to increased demand for bandwidth and in order to reduce expenses.

At present, the use of browser technologies is beginning to replace direct client-to-server connections for database access. The confidentiality and integrity of transferred data is guaranteed here through the standardized transfer protocol SSL. This development will lead to the replacement of additional point-to-point connections with connections over the internet.

The integration of further expert groups from the three oncological competence networks for the disease patterns of malignant lymphoma, acute and chronic leukemia as well as pediatric oncology into the communications infrastructure is already on the horizon and can be realized on short notice if needed.

Project team: Dr. Wolfgang Dolak Project management: Prof. Markus Löffler

Contact address:   IMISE, Universität Leipzig, Härtelstraße 16-18, 04107 Leipzig Phone: 0341 97 16104, Fax: 0341 97 16130 E-mail: E-Mail-Adresse