Brainlab Enters Cooperation with the German Society for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery (DGOOC)

Brainlab, a digital medical technology company, and the German Society for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery (DGOOC) will work together in the field of data privacy-compliant registry solutions. Through a partnership between Mint Medical GmbH, a Brainlab company, and the newly founded RSG Register Solutions gGmbH (RSG), a non-profit subsidiary of the DGOOC, Brainlab and DGOOC will have the opportunity to combine their expertise. Mint Medical is specialized in the computer-aided analysis of radiological and clinical data and is driven to learn from medical interventions while honoring a commitment to protecting patient identity.

The DGOOC has over a decade of expertise in the establishment, operation and management of the Endoprosthesis German Registry (EPRD). The EPRD is the second-largest medical-scientific registry for endoprosthetic hip and knee implantations with more than a quarter of a million surgical procedures documented annually. The defining feature of the EPRD is its secure, self-developed data trust center or “data trustee” that enables separate technical and organizational processing of patient identities as well as patient data. This is the only approach that meets the high data protection requirements for clinical data processing. The data trust center also forms the foundation for cross-clinical research.

In order to realize the cooperation with Brainlab, the registry technology—in particular the data trust center—was outsourced to RSG. Together, Mint Medical and RSG intend to further advance the data trust center software to record and evaluate additional important clinical parameters, such as patient images. Both organizations also aim to simplify the collection of relevant data from orthopedic interventions.

“Over the past few years, Brainlab has worked intensively on the implementation of a scalable registry infrastructure that is compliant with German data protection requirements, some of the most stringent privacy safeguards in the world,” said Stefan Vilsmeier, CEO and President of Brainlab.  “The RSG data trust center is the final piece of the puzzle that now allows us to collect healthcare data across clinics in a structured and secure manner. By making this technology available to as many healthcare stakeholders as possible, we can contribute to better patient care in an aging society.”

Matthias Baumhauer, Managing Director of Mint Medical added, “Today, Mint Medical software for research with healthcare data is already being used in all 38 German university hospitals as part of the University Medicine Network RACOON project. This project records and categorizes medical imaging and other data from Covid patients. Through the partnership with RSG, we can now expand our registry offering and securely correlate patient data across hospitals and throughout patient treatment while maintaining strict data protection criteria.”

Prof. Dr. Bernd Kladny, General Secretary of the DGOOC: “With the RSG, other medical-scientific societies can now also benefit from our years of expertise in establishing and operating registries. The cooperation with Brainlab adds another layer of expertise to the collection and analysis of patient data.”

Prof. Dr. Carsten Perka, spokesperson of the Executive Committee of the EPRD, emphasized the importance for the research sector: “Continuously improving the use of medical data to optimize patient care remains a topic of major importance. This requires a high level of data security, which is provided by our EPRD data trust center, the integration of X-Ray images as well as constantly advancing automated data entry and analysis options. Together with our partner, I look forward to the ongoing evaluation of medical data from multiple clinics.”