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INSTITUT FÜR MEDIZINISCHE INFORMATIK, STATISTIK UND EPIDEMIOLOGIE

The History of the Institute

From its beginnings in the 60's to the present day.

The history of the institute begins in the 1960s as Dr. H. Bernt was appointed as a professor in medical statistics (1968). At that time a working group (EDV) developed, which by 1972 was a leading player in the field of medicine in the former German Democratic Republic. Its main role was to coordinate computational activities in hospitals and academic institutes. A separate chair for Medical Statistics and Documentation, with its own research contracts, was created from this working group in 1973 with new focal points and an increasing number of scientists involved.

In 1994 the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (IMISE) was established. Its field of activity, in addition to lecturing and student training, was to promote the development of bio-statistical methods and procedures, and computer-aided documentation systems. In September 1991 Prof. Bernt was given emeritus status and the provisional management of the institute was taken over by bio-physicist PD Dr. D. Barthel.

Since March 1994, Professor Markus Loeffler is the Director of the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (IMISE). Under his management began the renewal and reorganization of the institute. Soon after, Dr. Alfred Winter was appointed as professor of Medical Informatics and deputy director of IMISE. Since then he manages the working group “Management of Information Systems in the Healthcare (MIG)” based on several DFG fundings (German Research Association), and has significantly contributed to the establishment of a state of the art Information System for the University Hospital (UKL) in Leipzig.

In 1999 a grant from the Federal Government of Germany (BMBF) allowed the successful establishment of the Coordination Center for Clinical Studies Leipzig (KKSL). Prof. Loeffler then became its Scientific Director.

Two years later, in 2001, the successful application for a DFG grant allowed a professorship for bioinformatics to be established. Prof. Peter Stadler from the Mathematics and Informatics Faculty of Leipzig University occupies this post since then. Further, the Interdisciplinary Center of Bioinformatics (IZBI) was established and Prof. Loeffler became its Scientific Director.

In late 2006, a BMBF funding allowed the successful establishment of a Clinical Trial Centre (ZKS) as Site Management Organisation (SMO).

In 2002, an interdisciplinary group “Ontologies in Medicine” (Onto-Med) was set up by PD Dr. Barbara Heller (passed away in 2005) and Prof. Heinrich Herre, who switched from the Faculty for Mathematics and Informatics to IMISE in 2007. Even after becoming a professor emeritus Prof Herre still successfully leads this research group and carries out scientific research in this field. Presently, he and his group, based on several BMBF fundings, research for new ontological findings.