Sleep - the challenge of time: 32nd Annual Conference of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM)

At the annual conference of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM), which took place this year in Essen from November 14 to 16 under the motto “Sleep - Challenges of our time”, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Krefting (Director of the Institute of Medical Informatics), together with Prof. Dr. Christoph Schoebel, Dr. Miriam Goldammer and Prof. Dr. Thomas Penzel, presented SOMNOLINK, a BMBF-funded project of the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII), in which nine partners in Germany are involved.

SOMNOLINK has set itself the task of improving the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) - from diagnosis to personalized therapy - through the development of artificial intelligence and the integration of data.

On November 16, a SOMNOLINK project meeting was held at the congress to discuss current problems and goals. In particular, new measures for better networking - especially between clinicians and computer scientists - were discussed.

Initial discussions were also held with manufacturers of medical sleep products, as SOMNOLINK is aiming for extensive networking with the data formats offered by the manufacturers.

The increasing importance of informatics was also reflected at the congress, where a GMDS symposium was held under the moderation of Dr. Nicolai Spicher. In addition to SOMNOLINK, the focus was also on other topics from the field of sleep medicine informatics, including a presentation by Prof. Dr. Dagmar Krefting entitled: “Using health data together - what options are there today and in the future? From the Health Data Utilization Act to health data utilization.”

Interested readers can find more information on the DGSM event page.

Next year's annual conference will take place in Hanover from November 27 to 29, 2025. The Institute of Medical Informatics will also be represented there again.