The GUIDE-IT platform has previously been funded by the German Research Foundation between 2022 and 2025 under the project number 495697118. It was a joint project between Charité - Universitätsmediizin Berlin, Universität Göttingen, and Freie Universität Berlin with Professor Marc Dewey, Professor Felix Balzer, Professor Dagmar Krefting, and Professor Martin Gersch as principal investigators. 

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Background and objectives

Medical imaging is essential to diagnosis and treatment. Randomised medical imaging trials contribute to the advancement of care. Data from such trials and registries are well structured, yet are rarely shared, as they are typically large and difficult to curate. The proposed preliminary project aims to address these obstacles by developing concepts for data sharing, in order to improve transparency, reproducibility, patient privacy and adherence to medical guidelines. Increased data sharing also supports the development of novel imaging biomarkers using artificial intelligence and radiomics.

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Methods and work programme

In the GUIDE-IT preliminary project, we propose to develop the conceptual foundations and requirements for an infrastructure for medical imaging trials. The following aspects will be addressed:

1. Stakeholder acceptance: Sharing medical imaging data between institutions holds considerable potential to improve care, but those involved sometimes have concerns that need to be addressed.

2. Use and access: A cultural shift towards a greater willingness to share data is discernible within the medical imaging community. A key challenge remains the implicit re-identification potential of images. In addition, there are open questions regarding intellectual property.

3. Data quality: Meaningful reuse of shared data requires mechanisms to ensure high quality, as well as the disclosure of metadata.

4. IT resources: Medical imaging generates large and heterogeneous datasets that call for flexible and scalable storage and computing capacity.

5. Sustainability: Establishing a shared infrastructure for these large and heterogeneous data requires substantial investment. A sustainability concept extending beyond the project horizon will therefore be developed.

Gender aspects, along with societal and ethical implications, will be taken into account. All concepts will be aligned with current national and international developments in interoperable data sharing and with the Medical Informatics Initiative, in order to ensure future integration into existing structures.

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Expected findings

The completion of the preliminary project will provide the basis for an infrastructure for the long-term retention of data from imaging trials that meets the requirements of the national and international scientific community. A sustainability concept for this infrastructure will be produced, in order to achieve efficient, accessible and sustainable use of research data from randomised imaging trials, thereby contributing to scientific insight, digital medicine and better care.​​

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