What is the ToolPool Health Research?

The ToolPool Health Research is a service offered by the Technology and Methods Platform for Networked Medical Research (TMF). This portal collects products that are generally helpful for networked medical research. The range of offers is broad and currently includes the following product types:

• Software
• eService
• Report/Appraisal
• Working material/checklist
• Consultancy
• Training

Many of the products (especially those provided by the TMF itself) are provided free of charge or on a pay-as-you-go basis.

You can find a lot more information on the ToolPool website. Other portals of this type without a medical focus can be found in the glossary entry Research Software Marketplace.

What topics does the ToolPool offer solutions for?

The offers are categorised as follows:

• Biobanks
• Cloud computing
• Data protection
• Collection, management and processing of digital images
• Research data management
• Clinical studies
• Metadata and metadata repositories
• Mobile IT tools
• Molecular high-throughput analyses
• Registries and cohorts
• Secondary use of clinical data
• Strategic activities and funding measures

The portal already contains over 120 entries (as of October'25), a large proportion of which are specific software tools, and will be expanded further.

What do I have to do to use these services?

Many of the services are free of charge and can be accessed directly from the portal. This applies in particular to reports, expert opinions, working materials, templates, etc. The Research Data Management Service Centre will be happy to help you with the use of software products, which usually have to be installed and configured locally, and is also available to answer any general questions you may have about the services.