Magdeburg research team involved in nationwide sepsis project
The Institute for Public Health in Acute Medicine at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg is part of the new joint project optiSEP – Transsectoral optimization of care processes for sepsis based on interoperable routine data. Funded with €7.5 million by the Innovation Committee of the Joint Federal Committee (G-BA), this large-scale project aims to improve sepsis care in Germany across all sectors in the long term. The consortium is led by Leipzig University Medical Center. The project is scheduled to start in September 2026.
With around 75,000 deaths annually, sepsis is one of the most common preventable causes of death in Germany. Despite numerous quality initiatives, there are still shortcomings – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care. This is exactly where optiSEP comes in: The aim is to improve the care of sepsis patients across all sectors and to consistently eliminate critical weak points along the treatment chain – from emergency services and emergency rooms to intensive care units and rehabilitation.
Dr. Alexandra Ramshorn-Zimmer, Head of Clinical Process Management at Leipzig University Hospital (UKL), project initiator and consortium leader, emphasizes: “With optiSEP, we are creating the conditions for combining modern diagnostics, digital data streams, and structured treatment pathways in such a way that patients benefit more quickly and in a more targeted manner. Our aim is not only to analyze the care chain, but also to improve it in concrete terms so that less information is lost at the interfaces and the quality of treatment increases measurably.”
At the heart of the project is the digitally linked, interoperable use of routine data from all phases of patient treatment. On this basis, data-supported decision-making aids will be developed in the future to identify dangerous developments earlier and support clinical decisions more quickly. In addition, standardized treatment pathways will ensure that the current evidence-based sepsis guidelines are implemented uniformly and reliably throughout the entire care process. A patient-centered aftercare concept aims to reduce the long-term consequences of sepsis.
“Sepsis knows no sector boundaries. For successful treatment, emergency services, emergency rooms, intensive care units, and rehabilitation must work together seamlessly,” says Univ.-Prof. Dr. Felix Walcher, Director of the Institute for Public Health in Acute Medicine at Magdeburg University Hospital.
“With optiSEP, we combine modern data-driven decision support, diagnostic innovation, and standardized treatment pathways to improve care across sectors and in a sustainable manner.” Molecular pathogen diagnostics using next-generation sequencing (NGS) plays a central role.
While classic cultures cannot always detect pathogens, or can only do so with a delay, NGS identifies pathogens directly via their genetic material. This makes it easier to detect pathogens that are difficult to culture. As a result, anti-infective therapies can be adapted earlier and in a more targeted manner, especially in time-critical cases.
In the Innovation Committee's two-stage selection process, the project impressed with its comprehensive, practical concept. The funding commitment carries additional weight in light of the recent decision to halve the Innovation Fund budget for 2026 and underscores the high relevance of the topic in terms of healthcare policy.
In the long term, optiSEP has the potential to serve as a model for other indications – while also putting into practice key requirements of the “Diagnosis and Treatment of Sepsis” quality assurance procedure launched on January 1, 2026.
Background: optiSEP consortium and scientific basis
The optiSEP consortium brings together proven expertise in intensive care medicine, emergency medicine, infectiology, and medical informatics. Under the consortium leadership of Leipzig University Hospital, the following partners, among others, are working together:
- Prof. Thorsten Brenner, Director of the Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Essen
- Prof. Sabine Blaschke, Medical Director, Central Emergency Room, University Medical Center Göttingen
- Prof. Felix Walcher, Director of the Institute for Public Health in Acute Medicine, University Medical Center Magdeburg
- Prof. Dr. Rainer Röhrig, Director of the Institute for Medical Informatics, University Hospital RWTH Aachen
optiSEP builds on the experience gained in the predecessor project DigiSep, which was developed through collaboration between scientific sections of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) e. V. and uses the AKTIN infrastructure, funded by the University Medicine Network (NUM), as the technological basis for the standardized collection of interoperable emergency room data and cross-sector data linking. optiSEP thus addresses a central problem in acute and emergency care: information loss at sectoral interfaces – for example, between emergency services, emergency rooms, and intensive care units.