Regional Centres of Digital Medicine
The Medical Research Agency has announced the creation of 18 Regional Centres of Digital Medicine. Thanks to them, an infrastructure will be created which will allow for the safe storage and collection of data in a uniform format. – We are becoming partners for at least eight years, we have been invited to cooperate both by the Copernicus Memorial Hospital in Lodz and the Medical University of Lodz – says Prof. Dominik Strapagiel, Head of the Biobank Laboratory at the Department of Cancer Biology and Epigenetics at the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection of the University of Lodz. – In the case of the first application, we are the only consortium member and we are fully responsible for the biobanking area, where we will also produce valuable data sets with scientific potential.
Symbolic presentation of the cheque at the Regional Centre of Digital Medicine, Medical University in Lodz. From the left: Prof. Janusz Piekarski (Vice-Rector of the Medical University of Lodz), Paweł Zawieja (Vice Chancellor for Organisation and Development at the Medical University of Lodz), Prof. Adam Antczak (Vice-Rector of the Medical University of Lodz), Dr hab. Radosław Sierpiński (President of ABM), Prof. Radzisław Kordek (Rector of the Medical University of Lodz), Jarosław Brózda (2nd Vice-Voivode of Lodz), Dr Monika Domarecka (Director at CSK)
Long and efficient sample life
The creation of the Regional Centres of Digital Medicine will allow to integrate data collected in individual centres, support clinical trials and hospital care in the field of digital solutions, as well as a retrospective analysis. In turn, as part of individual centres facilities enabling the analysis of the obtained biological samples will be created. – Each project to be implemented by the Medical Research Agency will impose obligations on the Regional Centres such as: securing medical material from patients, including data describing the patient, either at the level of images used in diagnostics or genomic data. And the whole thing will be available for scientific purposes – adds Prof. Strapagiel. – This is to ensure that the effects of some projects will work for the benefit of subsequent ones. The idea is that the life of the sample will be longer than before and that the data can be used repeatedly to ask different research questions. Thanks to this, we will not have to collect new material each time, which saves a lot of time and money during the study.
Security of medical data
The goal of the Regional Centres of Digital Medicine is to properly and safely collect data from, among other things, molecular research on cancer, monitor the clinical course of a given disease, as well as the development of innovative technologies. – When we have clear rules for storing data: what data is stored, where it is stored, who is responsible for storing it, we also have clear rules on how to ensure its security – explains Dr Michał Seweryn, Head of the Centre for Data Analysis, Modelling and Computational Sciences (CAMINO), University of Lodz , Biobank Laboratory. – Currently, data is stored in different systems that differ between hospitals, which means that these systems are not compatible with one another. It also happens that the data is not properly secured, and we must remember that medical data is our most sensitive data. At the Regional Centre of Digital Medicine, we take on the responsibility not only for collecting data, but also for securing it at the highest level.
What will the patient gain? – First of all, they will not have to remember all the tests they had in the past and go to the doctor with a bunch of documents, test results and hospital discharge notes. A doctor will be able to check all this in the database. Artificial intelligence can be successfully used to analyse this information, explains Dr Seweryn. – Secondly, the patient will be sure that their sensitive data is properly protected.
Lodz Biobank Laboratory
What is the role of the University of Lodz Biobank Laboratory in the creation of the Regional Centre of Digital Medicine?
In both cases, both in the case of cooperation with the Copernicus Memorial Hospital in Lodz and the Medical University of Lodz, we will act as a biobank. In the first case, we will be the only biobanking unit, in the second, we will take care of the so-called group of volunteer patients. The remaining patients will be taken care of by the Biobank Laboratory of the Medical University of Lodz. Each project amounts to nearly PLN 30 million from the Medical Research Agency – explains Prof. Strapagiel.
How will these funds be used?
As part of both projects, we will strengthen and expand the infrastructure for biological material biobanking, both through low-temperature freezers and cryogenic storage dewars where we can store tissues in liquid nitrogen vapour. We will also strengthen the IT infrastructure, because collecting such an amount of data takes up a significant amount of space. In short, the idea is to build a digital infrastructure supporting medicine and be able to use it in subsequent projects in the future – explains Prof. Strapagiel.
Dr Marta Popławska (Biobank Laboratory, Medical University of Lodz); Dr Dominik Strapagiel, Associate Professor; Prof. Maciej Chałubiński (Medical University of Lodz) at the Regional Centre of Digital Medicine of the Medical University of Lodz
In the service of science – globally
The project implemented with the Copernicus Memorial Hospital in Lodz also includes a large scientific component. – In Poland, there are few serious data repositories related to medicine that serve science. The database we will create may be interesting not only for scientists in Poland – explains Prof. Strapagiel.
The free flow of scientific data is crucial to ensuring the health of populations across Europe. One of the projects that will be implemented in Lodz by the University of Lodz Biobank Laboratory involves the creation of a genomic and imaging database describing a large pool of patients at risk of or suffering from breast cancer.
– We would like to create models, i.e. algorithms, that will support diagnostics at the highest level –adds Dr Seweryn. – The project will consist in examining a population of eight thousand women at risk of breast cancer, as well as those who have already been diagnosed with it and patients who are already undergoing treatment. We operate based on molecular data and combine it into one database with hospital, imaging, genetic, epigenetic, immunological data, etc. On this basis, we will build algorithms that will support monitoring of the breast cancer risk among women, but also support treatment.
This data set will be used by research teams across Poland and is intended to be the beginning of subsequent projects that will further develop this data set. In the future, scientists from Europe and around the world will also be able to use the data.
The symbolic presentation of a cheque for the implementation of the Regional Centres of Digital Medicine in cooperation with the Medical University of Lodz took place on 10 October 2023.
Source: Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz
Photos: Medical University of Lodz