Two Virchowbund ideas should become standard care

17.02.2022 13:34

According to the will of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), three of a total of 16 innovation fund projects are to be included in the standard provision. Two of them, the ARena and INVEST Billstedt/Horn projects, were created on the initiative of the Virchowbund and were supported by the association.

The federal chairman of the Virchow Association, Dr. Dirk Heinrich is enthusiastic: “We are pleased about the G-BA’s decision, as it clearly shows that our association obviously develops ideas relevant to healthcare, can design a project in a well-founded manner with strong partners and evaluate it based on solid data. With the topics of antibiotic resistance and medical care in socially disadvantaged areas, we set the agenda many years ago. On the one hand, we tackle the right questions, and on the other hand, we accompany the projects to success. Now these ideas can become standard care. Actually, this is what the legislature demands of all projects.”

The idea for the ARena project came from the deputy federal chairman of the Virchowbund, Dr. Veit Wambach. ARena stands for “Sustainably averting the development of antibiotic resistance” and aims to reduce the number of unnecessary prescriptions by using antibiotics in accordance with guidelines. This is intended to prevent the global problem of antibiotic resistance. The project was implemented through the “Agency of German Doctor Networks”, whose business was managed by the Virchowbund.

INVEST Billstedt/Horn, better known as a health kiosk, has shown how the life and health chances of socially disadvantaged groups can be improved. For this purpose, so-called health kiosks with multilingual, local and particularly low-threshold care and advice services were established in the two Hamburg districts of Billstedt and Horn. In addition, a broad health network was set up, in which health insurance companies also took part, alongside doctors and therapists from a wide range of disciplines. The shareholders of the sponsoring company Gesundheit für Billstedt/Horn UG are the Billstedt-Horn medical network, the Virchowbund, the Gesundheitkiosk eV and the SKH Landkreis-Klinik-Hamburg GmbH. The first two are the federal chairman of the Virchowbund, Dr. Dirk Heinrich, who is also the initiator of the health kiosk.

Further information about the two projects:

• Arena: https://bit.ly/3HXucFT

• INVEST Billstedt/Horn: https://bit.ly/3HXh57H