In the hectic corridors of emergency departments, where every second counts, there is little time to collect and analyze comprehensive data. The questions of how many patients seek help daily, how urgent their cases are, and what complaints they come with have often been difficult to answer until now. That is now changing with the groundbreaking AKTIN emergency admission register. This initiative emerged from a collaboration between Magdeburg University Hospital and the Institute of Medical Informatics at RWTH Aachen University Hospital. 

The Challenge: A Sea of Data in Real-Time 

Until the development of the AKTIN infrastructure, the collection of health data in emergencies was laborious and often delayed. Data had to be collected manually and transmitted to health authorities or collected in clinical studies at individual centers. That meant an enormous amount of extra work for medical staff, leading to delays that could cost lives in the worst-case scenario. 

The Solution: Automated, Decentralized Data Processing 

The AKTIN emergency admission register breaks with this tradition by providing an IT infrastructure that can access routine medical data from emergency departments daily, independently of the system, and in compliance with data protection regulations. Via a standardized interface, data from the documentation systems of the emergency departments is transferred in real time to a local data warehouse, where it is available for internal analyses and multi-center studies without the need for central data storage.  

The Benefits: A Quantum Leap in Public Health Surveillance 

The data analysis provides information on the immediate impact of pandemics on emergency care. It examines how other diseases affect patient care. The regular publication of this data in the RKI’s weekly emergency department surveillance reports, and its inclusion in the overarching situation reports provide an unprecedented insight into health events in Germany. 

In a world where data is the new gold, the AKTIN Emergency Department Registry is an invaluable resource for medical researchers aiming to revolutionize emergency care in Germany. The registry opens the door to a wealth of standardized clinical data that has the potential to significantly advance healthcare research in acute medicine. 

A step-by-step guide to data use  

1. first contact: Obtain advice 

2. Before applying data analysis, it is advisable to contact the team behind the AKTIN emergency admissions register at office@aktin.org. Here, you will receive valuable insights and advice on your research project, which will help you optimize your application. 

3. application: focus on scientific rigor and ethics 

The submission of your application follows the initial consultation. A scientific committee consisting of internal and external members will carefully review your application in terms of its scientific merit, feasibility, ethics, and data protection aspects. Particular attention will be paid to the data protection concept, which can be viewed at AKTIN Privacy Information. 

Data Release and Analysis: Trust and Transparency 

Once your application has been approved, the data requests are forwarded to the participating clinics. Approval by these clinics is the key to aggregating and analyzing the data in the Trusted Data Analyzing Center. Here, the data is carefully analyzed and processed before being available for research. 

Disclaimer: The information is based on the official publication of AKTIN e.V.: https://aktin.org. As of February 2024. All rights are protected and remain with the National Network of University Medicine and AKTIN e.V.