[Urolithiasis research-big data and artificial intelligence : How we can use the new structures of the medical informatics initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research].

BACKGROUND: The digital transformation of society has a tremendous impact on both medicine and healthcare. The generation and processing of continuously growing amounts of digital data can be used to facilitate new approaches in research, particularly for healthcare research of common diseases such as urolithiasis.
OBJECTIVE: Presentation of the design of the German medical informatics initiative (MI-I) and the resulting possibilities for healthcare research in the field of urolithiasis.
RESULTS: For a meaningful utilization patient data must be readily available for research purposes and suitable methods for the analysis, interpretation and utilization must be developed. The aim of the German MI‑I is to make patient data collected during hospitalization available for research. The formation of so-called data integration centers will create a digital network that will facilitate the utilization and exchange of data between institutions. Advanced artificial intelligence algorithms will be used for analysis of the immense amounts of data. In May 2019 the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research boosted funding for the set-up of a digital nationwide registry on urolithiasis where the data foundation is to be generated based on the digital infrastructure of the MI‑I. The registry is intended to answer questions from the three relevant areas: "impact of the disease on individuals and society" (e.g. limitations in the quality of life and ability to work, treatment costs), "identification of further risk factors" (e.g. personalized medicine, especially taking account of lifestyle and nutrition, development of a risk score) and "evaluation of various treatment approaches" (which is the best treatment for an individual patient?).