As part of the preparation of the TOFU imaging module, a one-year pilot project funded by retina.net was conducted in 2021. The aim was to develop an operational imaging module for the reliable and standardized collection of imaging data that would be accepted by all end users and meet both technical and data protection requirements.
For the pilot project, the existing infrastructure of the TOFU registry (including ethics approvals and patient consent for participation in the imaging module) was used. The test phase for image upload involved the coordinating centers University Hospital Bonn and St. Franziskus Hospital Münster, as well as the university hospitals in University Hospital Tübingen and University Hospital Aachen. During the course of the pilot project, additional funding was secured from Biogen, which made it possible to transition the imaging module into routine operation at two centers (University Hospital Bonn and St. Franziskus Hospital Münster). The database is operated by the GRADE Reading Center.
