Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death in western industrialized nations. In Germany, around 40% of all deaths are attributable to diseases of the cardiovascular system. Due to increasing life expectancy, an increase in cardiovascular diseases is to be expected.

The "coNfirm" network is part of the "Networking Fund for Systems Medicine". The interdisciplinary interactions between the five modules of the research and funding concept "e:Med - measures to establish systems medicine" are to be strengthened.

The network focuses on the cardiovascular diseases of heart failure, myocardial infarction and atrial fibrillation. The aim is to identify disease-spanning characteristics and mechanisms with the help of a systems medicine approach and thus gain a more comprehensive understanding of cardiovascular diseases. This is a prerequisite for the development of personalized preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures.

In the "coNfirm" network, nine working groups are collaborating on an interdisciplinary basis under the leadership of young scientists. They want to combine and evaluate various experimental data sets and clinical information obtained by the project partners. This requires efficient data exchange, for which the foundations are being developed in this project: The data from different working groups and disciplines must be harmonized, and experimental standards and legal requirements must be created. This fundamental work and the tools developed for data linkage can be transferred to many areas in which data exchange promises to yield major gains in knowledge.

Knowledge about efficient data exchange and bioinformatics methods is passed on to the e:Med community in workshops.