Data management is described as all infrastructural and systematic  facilities and processes that allow the optimal and efficient use of data. With the ever-increasing amount of data being produced, (medical) data management has become more and more important over the past few years.

In the German Center for Lung Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Lungenforschung - DZL) the data from all five participating sites must be collected, for later use in scientific research.  Since the data structure is heterogeneous rather than homogeneous, the data must be harmonized and aligned. The data (and their processes as well as the infrastructure) are subject not only to a complex system of rules and roles, but they must also conform to data protection laws and the data quality must be correct.

At each of the DZL sites, a data manager is responsible for the above-mentioned tasks and they all work closely together across the sites in the Data Management Task Force.