Scientific Concept of the National Cohort (status ... - Nationale Kohorte

C.1
C.1 Annex: Description of the study centers
Description of the institution responsible for establishing and operating the study
center
The university of Greifswald, founded in 1456, is one of the oldest universities in Europe.
Based on recommendations of the German Science Council, Community Medicine has
been developed to a main research field of the Medical Faculty of the University of Greifswald.
The Community Medicine Research Network was founded in 1995 and comprises
scientists and clinicians of different specialities, including epidemiologists, internists, cardiologists,
neurologists, psychiatrists, social scientists, dentists, molecular biologists, pediatricians,
and many more. Within this network, not only do the different specialities within the
medical faculty collaborate with each other, but also with scientists from different departments.
Because after German reunification in 1990, scientifically valid data from East Germany
to explain the regional differences in life expectancy were lacking and, consequently,
there was a need for population-based research in northeast Germany. The Study of Health
in Pomerania (SHIP) thus representing the central tool for the Community Medicine Research
Network. The formation of the Institute for Community Medicine in 2002 established
permanent institutional structures within the Community Medicine Research Network. Since
2007, SHIP has been integrated in the Institute of Community Medicine as a third section
of Clinical-Epidemiologic Research. SHIP is actively involved in multiple national research
consortia, such as the Competence Network Heart Failure and the Diabetes Collaborative
Research of Epidemiologic Studies (DIAB-CORE), an epidemiologic subproject of the
Competence Network Diabetes, and and the Transregio SFB 19 “Inflammatory cardiomyopathy”.
SHIP is also part of international research consortia that perform genome-wide
association studies.
Currently, the overall project consists of two studies, the second examination follow-up of
the first SHIP cohort (SHIP-2) and baseline examinations of the second SHIP cohort (SHIP-
TREND). Both studies have been designed to investigate the long-term progression of subclinical
findings, their determinants and prognostic values (SHIP-2); to analyze the secular
trend of subclinical and overt diseases and their determinants in a high-risk population
(SHIP-TREND vs SHIP-0); and to assess the prevalence of subclinical findings defined by
highly innovative no-invasive methods (SHIP-TREND). The aforementioned details on the
comprehensive project of SHIP and the successful efforts with respect to quality assurance
reflect the expertise of the existing personnel in implementing recruitment and long-term
follow-up of large-scale population-based cohort studies. Given the expertise from SHIP,
where data were collected at two examination centers (Stralsund and Greifswald), sufficient
experience is available to organize examinations outside Greifswald. There will be regular
site visits of the coordinating staff at Neubrandenburg (1 h by car).
Description of the study center Neubrandenburg
The sample frame is located south of the SHIP region, including the city of Neubrandenburg
und the surrounding communities of Uecker-Randow, Demmin, Mueritz, and Mecklenburg-
Strelitz. The population living in the study region comprises 281,338 (20–69 years). The
central population registry in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will be used to draw a population-representative
sample of 20,000 participants. The study center Neubrandenburg
is located at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Hospital in Neubrandenburg, an academic teaching
hospital of the University Hospital of Greifswald, which provides rooms for investigations,
interviews, terminals for self-administered questionnaires and preanalytical preparation and
interim storage of biosamples. The location in the hospital supports an optimal conduction
of the study, for utilization of the laboratory or the infrastructure for examinations including
MRI. The study center is easily accessible by public transport or by car.
270