In the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
New Core and Subsidiary Subjects since the Winter Semester 96/97
The first course in Computer Science (Informatics; Informatik) in Lower Saxony was started at the Carolo-Wilhelmina Technical University in Braunschweig in 1972. Until the mid-Eighties Braunschweig (Brunswick) remained the only university in Lower Saxony to offer this course of studies (1). Computer Science in Braunschweig is now being widened and extended within the framework of a structural concept for the universities throughout Lower Saxony, the aim of which is to guarantee the future of the universities through the cost-cutting concentration and merging of capacity.
The new construction of a long-proposed large, comprehensive Computer Science Centre will unite all the scattered institutes under one roof. In this connection the very succesful "Medical Informatics" is being consolidated and moved frtom the University of Hildesheim to the Technical University Braunschweig for the beginning of the Winter Semester 96/97 with effective links within the new Computer Science Centre (see Fig. 1). Education and training will probably be terminated in Hildesheim in 1999.
Based on the experience and success of 8 years of "Medical Informatics" at the University of Hildesheim within a Faculty for Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences (1988-1996), the move to Braunschweig and the re-establishment of the subject there means considerably extended provision, new opportunities, new focal points and new goals.
The Hildesheim Model of U_M_I started in 1988 with the inclusion of Medical Informatics enjoying equal rights within the fulltime degree course for Computer Science. This model was the first work and model for similar attempts at founding new institutes in Germany. It is still unique (2). The course of study following this model means: U_M_I is not only a subsidiary subject amongst others, but also a core subject and a subject for more intensive studies within Computer Science. This means that, as a subject, it plays a much more important part with regard to training and examinations because of the larger proportion of hours for classes, lectures and practicals per week both in the basic and advanced sections of the course of study (2). The well-tried and successful U_M_I at Hildesheim will be firmly rooted within a Faculty for Mathematics and Computer Science in Braunschweig.
However, the radius for links with other subjects is considerably larger in Braunschweig. At a large university, engineering sciences, such as electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, robotics, process informatics, biomedical technology, aeronautics and space medicine, management studies, linguistics, psychology and pharmaceutics all offer interesting cooperation with practicing doctors, the Städtisches Klinikum Braunschweig (City Hospital), the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (University Teaching Hospital), and the University Teaching Hospitals in Göttingen, Magdeburg, Berlin and Regensburg permit a detailed view and examination of the regular and first-rate provision of modern top-level medicine (2).
Fig. 1: Organisation of the Informatics Centre
The Institute for Theoretical Informatics (apart from the EiS section) was not included in the diagram for representational reasons. As an institute dealing with basic principles, it has close connections with almost all the other informatics institutes - as well as to the mathematics institutes. The strength of the connections between the informatics institutes is characterised by lines of different thickness in the diagram.
Abbreviations of the Institutes/Departments (planned organisation):
EiS Department
for the Design of Integrated Circuits
iRP Institute
for Robotics and Process Informatics
CG Institute for
Computer Graphics
MI Institute
for Medical Informatics
WiR Institute for
Scientific Computing
IBR Institute
for Operating Systems and Computer Networks
PS & ST Institute for Programming Languages and Software
Technology
The academically trained future graduate from Braunschweig has learnt and practiced formal thinking during the basic and advanced sections of his or her course of study. The content of the abstract structures, processes and formal models to be thought about are derived from the engineering science aspect of medicine, medical technology and computer science. The teaching of these contents starts during the basic course and is broadened and deepened during the advanced part of the course. The distorting simplification and trivialisation of doctors' concepts of diagnostic, therapeutic and clinical processes for the examples, classes and practicals within computer science must, of course, be avoided at all costs here.
The danger of a lack of medical professionalism at a university without a medical faculty is counteracted by the inclusion of practitioners with professional and teaching experience. This is done by means of the selected provision of special medical classes which have proved their worth in practical application in Hildesheim (2). This has the particular advantage of sharpening the awareness of the computer science student for the true problems of most patients, doctors, male and female nurses, hospitals and health insurance institutions in the country which do not continue require highly specialised university products of medical informatics both at present and in the future lies precisely within this huge market segment of primary and secondary provision.
Additive teaching and research models of the so-called interdisciplinary kind for the supposed control of complexity and pluralism suffer from the fact that work and the gaining of knowledge for each individual discipline often remain below their true value (5,6). In contrast, the new Medical Informatics at the Technical University Braunschweig tries a transdisziplinary approach that leads to Virtual Medical Transparance, Virtual Medicine, to the Virtual Patient and to the Virtual Hospital.(cf. also the Braunschweig Handbook for Students: Institute for Medical Informatics: A. Fields of Work, B. Classes, Lectures and Examination for Advanced Students, C. Students' Papers and D. Subsidiary subject : "Medicine")
The increasingly isolated fragmentation of static and procedural knowledge can only be reduced, kept under control and overcome synergistically at an inter-faculty level and in a clear visualizing way by means of the newest information and communication systems for research, teaching and medical practice (6).
The goal of the Braunschweig education and training in U_M_I is to make the students capable of being employed, and this combined with a predominantly theory and method-orientated scientific slant (7). The structural sciences, such as mathematics, logic and computer science are the sources of formal ways of thinking, with training of the power of mathematical proof. Medicine, medical technology, business studies, psychology, and the natural, engineering and social sciences are the sources of the content, with training of the power of judgement.
The process towards readiness for employment can only be introduced by the numerous classes and practicals accompanying the course of study, and especially those with commercial systems from the health service. The attainment of a state of readiness for employment is the task of the later professional experience, e.g. in hospitals, rehabilitation centres, the administration, industry (at home and abroad), management, health policy, assurance, sales, consulting, European organisations, and also in research and teaching. Experience has shown that the future field of work of the person trained in university (medical) informatics does not lie exclusively in the sphere of medicine, medical technology or the health service. If successful, the content and the application-related maturing and rounding off of formal mathematical thought by means of medical contents that are close to realitiy has a didactic use for other fields of application as well.
Of course, the science-based general vocational qualification obtained through university study (ability to gain employment) does not only concern research-related employment. After a course that has been completed with a very good or good degree, the training and further training of young scientists takes place through the classical form of the doctorate or through postgraduate studies (7).
The articles and books (1,3,4,5,6,7) with the additional references contained in them provide comprehensive orientation about the current teaching and research situation at the Technical University Braunschweig. They contain numerous indications and considerations concerning the history, reforms and present state of study at the Technical University. Details of the various training models for Medical Informatics (universities, Fachhochschulen [specialized colleges of higher education], Fachschulen [technical colleges] and Berufsfachschulen [specialized vocational schools]/Academies) can be found in (9, 10). The Hildesheim Computer Science Report 7/96 contains a detailed description of the U_M_I with basic data, diagrams, many hints, explanations, research results, European projects and international standards (2). The Report has 230 pages and provides a comprehensive, easily comprehensible introduction to the reasons for the move and re-establishment of the U_M_I in Braunschweig. The brochure "Telematics for Health Care" published by the European Commission (available in English and German) provides futher insights into the future field of medical informatics (8).
1. Munzel, J.: Die Entwicklung der Informatik an der TU Braunschweig, in: (3), 701-709
2.Pretschner, D.P. (ed): Medizin_Informatik, Universität Hildesheim, Hildesheimer Informatikbericht 7/96, ISSN 0941-3014, Hildesheim, 1996
3. Rebe, B., Kertz W. (Hrsg): Technische Universität Braunschweig 1745-1995, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, 1995
4. Rebe, B. (Hrsg): Forschungsbericht 1995, Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 1995
5. Zimmerli, W.Ch.: Wissenschaft im technologischen Umbruch: die Technische Universität an der Schwelle zur Zukunft, in: (3), 781-788
6. Zimmerli, W.Ch.: Universität am Scheideweg. Die Zukunft der deutschen Hochschulen liegt (auch) in den fachübergreifenden Studienanteilen, Mitteilungen des Hochschulverbandes 1/93, Verlag: Deutscher Hochschulverband, 1993, 29-31
7. Erichsen, H.-U.: Zur Reform der Studienstruktur. Vorschläge der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, Mitteilungen des Hochschulverbandes 1/93, Verlag: Deutscher Hochschulverband, 1993, 11-12
8. De Moor, G., Lacombe, J., Noothoven van Goor, J., Thayer, C.: Telematics for Healthcare. Die Auswirkungen ? Die Zukunft ?, European Commission, Directorate General Unit C-4,Telematics Application for Health Care, Brüssel,1996
9. Trampisch, H.J. (Hrsg): Praxis-, Studien- und Forschungsführer Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie ,G. Fischer, 2. Aufl., 1995
10. Köhler, C.O., Elsässer, K.H., Engelbrecht, R., Pretschner, D.P., Vosseler, C.: Medizinischer Informatiker/Medizinische Informatikerin, Bundesanstalt für Arbeit, Blätter zur Berufskunde, Band 3, 3. Auflage, in Vorbereitung, 1996
