DMEA sparks Award 2026: International Award for Medical Informatics Graduates of BFH

At the DMEA (Digital Medical Expertise & Applications) in Berlin, Europe's leading and largest event for digital health and medical informatics, the best bachelor's and master's theses in medical informatics, e-health, health IT, health management, health economics, healthcare management, and other fields are recognized annually. The DMEA sparks Award honors theses that contribute to the forward-looking and sustainable development of healthcare through IT. The first prize for the best bachelor's thesis is endowed with 1,500 euros.

The BFH Medical Informatics department was represented with three projects in the final of the top five works. Fabian Bürki impressed the jury the most with his work and wins the 1st prize. The project demonstrates how openEHR can be used to modernize clinical application systems and reduce data silos at the University Hospital Basel. A prototype for the 24-hour blood pressure monitoring was developed, enabling the interoperable and future-proof use of patient data. The 3rd place goes to Christian Franke for his work titled 'Optimization of Data Integration and Analysis of High-Cost Drugs in the SwissDRG System'.

The following is an overview of the three nominated works – a result the Bern University of Applied Sciences is justly proud of.

Development of an openEHR Prototype for the Modernization of Clinical Application Systems

Fabian Bürki's project at the University Hospital Basel explored how clinical application systems can be modernized using openEHR, reducing data silos within the hospital. OpenEHR is an approach for storing patient data in a vendor-independent, standardized manner, making it more accessible and exchangeable between various systems. Using the example of 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, it demonstrated how clinical processes and relevant data elements can be semantically consistently modeled. This led to the development of a prototype that allows future integration into the hospital's new data platform and already provides concrete foundations and building blocks for further projects. In the long term, this approach can improve interoperability, reduce vendor dependencies, and promote a more patient-centered use of healthcare data.

Optimization of Data Integration and Analysis of High-Cost Drugs in the SwissDRG System

Christian Franke's project illustrates how a graph database can support SwissDRG AG in analyzing complex relationships between high-cost drugs and their indications. A graph database does not primarily store information in tables but as nodes and connections, making it particularly suitable for visualizing relationships between various pieces of information. For this purpose, publicly available data from multiple sources was integrated into Neo4j and transformed into a flexible data model with over 27,000 nodes and more than 41,000 relationships. This allows for better recognition of relevant connections between medications, even when data quality is inconsistent. The solution is intended to be used in the future to specifically support the development of inpatient tariff systems in the Swiss healthcare system.

Bidirectional Exchange of Structured Vaccination and Immunization Status Data between HIS and EPD

The work by Sara Michelle Müller and Nicola Streit demonstrates how structured vaccination and immunization status data can be bidirectionally exchanged between the hospital information system of Spital STS AG (Thun) and the electronic patient record (EPD). The goal was to complement the often paper-based documentation with a standardized, digital process based on HL7 FHIR CH-VACD and ensure data reconciliation between both systems. The developed procedure enables functional reconciliation as well as the upload and download of relevant data. This reduces redundancies, simplifies administrative processes, and improves data reuse, for example, for a vaccination check. In the long term, both healthcare professionals and patients benefit from more consistent documentation and higher quality of care.

Since 2017, the BFH Medical Informatics department has been participating in the DMEA, encouraging its students to submit their best theses for the 'DMEA sparks Award'. With success: every single year since then, BFH graduates have made it to the podium — with eight first places, two second places, and seven third places. Thanks to Fabian Bürki's award, gold goes to the BFH in Biel for the fifth consecutive time. This exceptional series of successes demonstrates the quality of education in medical informatics at BFH also in an international comparison. The crucial factors are especially the practical relevance of the projects, their high maturity level, and their sustainable benefit to healthcare.

Bachelor's Degree in Medical Informatics

The medical informatics program imparts sound informatics knowledge, a comprehensive insight into medicine and healthcare, as well as practice-oriented competencies in project management. Medical informaticians actively shape the data-driven digitalization of healthcare: they develop innovative IT and digitization solutions, build prototypes, implement them, and lead complex IT projects. With their expertise, they ensure seamless information flow within and between healthcare facilities. During their studies, they learn medical processes in detail and link them with their IT and management skills, for the benefit of patients. Two specializations are available: Design Thinking and Advanced Data Processing. Both teaching and research are characterized by high practical relevance.

More detailed information about the program, admission requirements, and career prospects: bfh.ch/medizininformatik

Information events for the Bachelor's in Medical Informatics: bfh.ch/medizininformatik-info

Summaries of the nominated bachelor's theses:

Fabian Bürki: fabian.buerki@proton.me

Christian Franke: ch.franke@gmx.ch

Sara Michelle Müller: sara.michelle98@hotmail.com

Nicola Streit: streitnicola@gmail.com

Contact

Prof. Michael Lehmann, Head of Medical Informatics, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Information Technology, michael.lehmann@bfh.ch, + 41 32 321 64 36

Sabine Zimmerli, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Information Technology, sabine.zimmerli@bfh.ch, +41 31 848 32 27

Bern University of Applied Sciences

Media Service TI

Seevorstadt 103b

CH 2502 Biel

mediendienst.ti@bfh.ch

bfh.ch/ti

Editor's note: Image rights belong to the respective publisher. Image rights: Berner Fachhochschule (BFH)