What was the initial pre-pandemic initiative launched by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in 2014?

Integrated Molecular Surveillance (IMS)

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Germany proactively began developing a framework aimed at systemic data integration prior to major crises. Starting in 2014, this initiative was termed Integrated Molecular Surveillance (IMS). The primary goal of IMS was to merge two distinct data streams: pathogen sequence information derived from molecular analysis and the traditional epidemiological reports detailing case numbers, locations, and patient demographics. Initially, this integration targeted established public health concerns like *Salmonella*, *Listeria*, *E. coli*, Tuberculosis, and HIV, establishing the infrastructure that would later be refined into Integrated Genomic Surveillance (IGS) as sequencing became more central to routine reporting.