AKTIN: Routine data for research in acute, intensive care and emergency medicine

AKTIN is a federated technical and organisational infrastructure that makes standardised clinical data from Emergency Departments and Perspective available on a daily basis and nationwide - automated, decentralised, data protection-compliant and independent of individual IT systems. We provide data from patient care for research and public health surveillance.

The special feature: the data remains in the respective clinic and under its control.

Data is only analysed in a secure environment, the AKTIN Trust Data Analytics Centre, after independent review and approval for a specific purpose. Only aggregated results are issued and patient anonymity is guaranteed.

AKTIN has been systematically developed since 2015 - with a focus on interoperability and long-term stability. The infrastructure follows the international FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable):

Findable: All data and metadata are structured and searchable
Accessible: Standardised interfaces enable secure, controlled data usage
Interoperable: Open standards (HL7-CDA, FHIR) ensure interchangeability with other systems
Reusable: Data is documented and qualified for secondary use

AKTIN was established through BMBF funding until 2019 and has been an integral part of the Network University Medicine (NUM) since 2020.

AKTIN is an established, reliable infrastructure that combines security with usability.

We make three central things possible:

Access to structured, validated treatment data in accordance with the DIVI standard from Emergency Departments and, in future, intensive care units via NUM-RAPID. This enables evidence-based multi-centre care research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown it: Since 2020, AKTIN has been providing the RKI and BMG with daily updated data on patient numbers, symptoms, diagnoses and length of stay as a basis for syndromic surveillance in Emergency Departments and the presentation of Emergency Departments' capacity utilisation in the infection radar.

Hospitals receive benchmarking reports from the emergency admission register: How fast are your processes? How do you compare with similar hospitals? Where is there potential for optimisation? At the same time, these reports help us to monitor the data quality of the routine data.

Who is behind it?

The central AKTIN components for the Emergency Departments are operated from two locations:

University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Institute for Medical Informatics: Technical development and operation, IT support, data protection

University Medical Centre Magdeburg: Administration, community management and data analysis

Both sites work closely together with emergency department managers, researchers, medical societies (DIVI, DGINA) and federal authorities (RKI, BMG).

Vision

Optimal trans-sectoral patient care in acute, emergency and intensive care medicine through smart data.

Mission

We enable healthcare research, surveillance, quality management and benchmarking through the efficient and quality-assured use of digital routine data from acute, emergency and intensive care.

Our interprofessional collaboration is based on innovation, science and trustworthiness.