Sharing key technologies and scientific knowledge in clinical research is largely dependent on managing, storing, securing and maintaining a multitude of data. The rapid development of new high-throughput technologies, the enormous amount of data produced by these technologies (mostly referred to as multi-omics data) and the decreasing cost of using them, demands the establishment of sustainable data policies and data management strategies.

The Medical Faculty in Kiel recently established the foundation for an independent workgroup that dedicates its efforts towards medical research data management, providing access to the multitude of research data as well as to relevant information from the health care context, such as electronic medical patient records or medical imaging data.

Central tools in this approach will encompass recent developments from the i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) and the tranSMART communities which are currently emerging as standard-systems for clinical research information processing.