Technology, Methods, and Infrastructure (TMF) for Networked Medical Research

The TMF is the umbrella organization for networked medical research in Germany. It is the platform for interdisciplinary exchange as well as cross-project and cross-location cooperation in order to identify and solve the organizational, legal/ethical and technological problems of modern medical research. Solutions range from expert opinions, generic concepts, and IT applications to checklists, practical guides, training, and consultation services. The TMF makes these solutions available to the public free of charge.

Mission:
They bring together researchers in different disciplines and develop concepts, infrastructures, and methods that promote medical research. They thus increase the safety, quality, and efficiency of medical research, ensure the necessary standardization, and offer researchers, irrespective of their scientific issues, assistance in dealing with the increasingly complex legal and regulatory infrastructure of medical research.

Aims:
Their aims in particular are the following:
• to improve the quality, organization, and cooperation of medical research;
• to clarify the legal and ethical foundations for performing medical research and to provide model solutions;
• to promote quality assurance and quality management in medical research, for example in the field of clinical studies and in biobanking;
• to develop and expand efficient IT infrastructures and to promote their implementation in cross-institutional networked structures;
• to make contributions to sustainable and efficient health research by means of improved transfer of research findings to patient care, and
• to inform researchers, patients, politicians, and journalists about medical research issues in an up-to-date, independent, and appropriate manner by means of science-based communication.