Projects and Data Use
Use of data
Employees of the University Medical Centre Freiburg maintain the SMArtCARE data collection. The data, which are documented via a web-based form at the point of treatment, are stored and processed in an encrypted form on a server of the University Medical Centre Freiburg. The main responsibility for SMArtCARE and data protection lies with Prof. Dr. Janbernd Kirschner, the head of the data collection in cooperation with the Centre for Clinical Studies (ZKS) of the University Medical Centre Freiburg.
More detailed information on the database used and the storage of data can be found in our data protection concept.
The responsible head of SMArtCARE decides on the provision of data for a specific project in consultation with the independent Steering Committee. Before the data are made available, the head of data collection ensures that the vote (approval) of an ethics committee has been obtained for the corresponding research project. The provision of data is either pseudonymised - i.e. no name or initials are provided, but only a 5-digit identification code - or anonymised - i.e. without providing the name or other uniquely identifying data and without the identification code. Where possible, anonymization is preferred to pseudonymisation to minimize the risk of recognition. For aggregated (merged individual values) reports, the data sets are completely anonymized.
The scientific analysis of the data is carried out in close cooperation with the Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI), which also deals with "Small Data" within the framework of a Collaborative Research Centre (CRC).
If you are a participating centre and have your own research ideas or would like to validate new evaluation instruments, please contact us. A description of the publication request process can be found here.