A special query tool in the hospital information system to recognize patients and to increase patient numbers for clinical trials.

A powerful hospital information system (HIS) contains information about diagnostic and disease data of all patients in a hospital. In the university hospital in Frankfurt / Main Germany more than 80% of all wards are completely "paperless". But the identification of patients for clinical trials is very difficult. We developed a special query and reporting tool in the HIS to recognize patients with a specific disease and with basic inclusion and exclusion criteria for a specific clinical trial. With the help of this query tool it is possible to increase significantly the patient numbers for clinical trials in a short period.

IT behind a platform for Translational Cancer Research - concept and objectives.

The German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) and the Rhine-Main Translational Cancer Research Network (RM-TCRN) are designed to exploit large population cohorts of cancer patients for the purpose of bio-banking, clinical trials, and clinical cancer registration. Hence, the success of these platforms is heavily dependent on the close interlinking of clinical data from cancer patients, information from study registries, and data from bio-banking systems of different laboratories and scientific institutions. This article referring to the poster discusses the main challenges of the platforms from an information technology point of view, legal and data security issues, and outlines an integrative IT-concept concerning a decentralized, distributed search approach where data management and search is in compliance with existing legislative rules.

Cooled microwave ablation of thyroid nodules: Initial experience.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if internally cooled microwave ablation (cMWA) is a safe and effective method for treatment of benign and malign thyroid nodules. METHODS: 9 patients with 11 symptomatic cold benign thyroid nodules and 1 recurrent thyroid carcinoma ranging in volume from 9.1 to 197ml (mean size 52±â€Š57ml) were treated with cMWA. The mean age of the patients was 59 years. Pain during the treatment was measured on a 10-point scale. Side effects revealed by ultrasound or patients' complaints were documented. Periablative efficacy was measured 24h after cMWA as change (Δ) in serum thyreoglobulin (Tg). Nodule elasticity was measured on a 4-point scale, blood circulation and echogenicity on a 3-point scale. RESULTS: All patients tolerated cMWA well. Median pain intensity averaged 2.1±0.8 (range: 1-3). Postablative hematoma was observed in all cases. In no cases ablation led to hoarseness, superficial burns, nodule ruptures, vagal reactions or dysphagia. cMWA lead to a significant decrease of blood circulation, nodule echogenicity and a significant increase of elasticity (Δ = 1.1 ±â€Š0.33; 0.8 ±â€Š0.4 and 1.1 ±â€Š0.6 points)(p<0.05). An average increase of 4495ng/ml Tg was measured (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: cMWA is an effective and secure method for treatment of thyroid nodules.