On 14 and 15 July 2016, the Institute of Databases and Information Systems (DBIS) hosted a 2-Day Tinnet Training School on the Tinnitus Database.
Background Information
TINNET is a European research network funded by the COST program under the Action number BM1306. Tinnet aims at a better understanding of the heterogeneity of tinnitus to improve and develop new treatments. Tinnitus, in turn, is a highly prevalent disorder that is difficult to treat. Tinnitus (“ringing in the ear”) is characterized by the perception of a sound in the absence of a corresponding acoustic stimulus.
Prof. Dr. Manfred Reichert and Dr. Rüdiger Pryss are both members of Working Group 2 (WG2) of Tinnet. WG2 deals with data management in a central database and identification of subtype candidates. In this context, DBIS developed components for an existing tinnitus database (http://www.tinnitus-database.de). With this database, data of tinnitus patients are gathered by specialized tinnitus centers that are located worldwide. So far, the database stores data of over 4000 patients, including over 4500000 patient records. To cope with this data, DBIS developed under the supervision of Dr. Rüdiger Pryss and Prof. Dr. Manfred Reichert new components that take amongst others data visualization, statistical evaluations, and patient features into account.
Tinnet Training School at a Glance
To discuss, evaluate, and train the new database developments, which have been realized by DBIS, tinnitus experts from all over Europe were invited by the general chair Dr. Winfried Schlee of Tinnet to come to Ulm. DBIS was granted by the Tinnet program to host this event. The 2-day training school not solely consisted of sessions for train the tinnitus experts on the new database features, it even included two more formats that have been organized by DBIS as well.
First, two experiments have been conducted. The experiments aimed at the evaluation of new methods to gather data of tinnitus patients based on smart mobile devices. Second, distinguished speakers were invited to share their ideas on how to cope with the data of the tinnitus database more efficiently in the future. DBIS was proud that these speakers made the 2-day training school even more valuable.
The topics addressed by the speakers are as follows:
- PD Dr. Michael Landgrebe, Regensburg University: The TRI database: Big data as a chance to improve clinical characterisation and development of new treatments for tinnitus
- Prof. Myra Spiliopoulou, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg: Mining epidemiological data with unsupervised, semi-supervised and supervised methods.
- Dr. Ralf Krestel, Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Statistische Textanalyse von NIH-Anträgen zur Erkennung von zeitlichen Mustern
- Prof. Dr. Timo Ropinski, Ulm University: Visual Computing in Medicine
- Lorenz Kupfer, Microsoft Germany: Using the Azure Cloud for Scientific Purposes
More information are available at:
Acknowledgements
DBIS would like to thank Susanne Staudinger who supported us perfectly in organizing this event. In addition, the DBIS students Michael Stach, Aliyar Aras and Robin Zöller supported the training sessions greatly. Finally, Johannes Schobel, Michael Zimoch and Marc Schickler organized the experiments perfectly.