With a concise but succinct four-point program, the German Healthcare Research Network (DNVF) is committed to making the German healthcare system patient-centered and future-proof with evidence-based information. According to the DNVF in a press release, the German healthcare system urgently needs important adjustments through healthcare-related research and development (R&D).

>> To support this demand, the DNVF has developed four points:

1 Focus on patient orientation and participation
Due to demographic trends, fewer healthcare professionals will be available in the future to care for a larger number of patients, primarily those with chronic illnesses. To ensure high-quality, patient-centered, and affordable care, the involvement and participation of patients and their families in shaping the healthcare system is becoming increasingly important. Funding structures must therefore be changed to ensure that research topics are selected with greater relevance to patients. Appropriate structures to promote patient participation must be established, such as patient advisory councils in Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs). Furthermore, the structural influence of patients must be strengthened, e.g., in the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) (more representatives and voting rights), and the professionalization and independence of patient organizations must be promoted.
What's crucial is a regionally controlled healthcare offering that is focused on patient benefit. Therefore, vested interests should be eliminated.

2 Better data access through a central federal institute
Transparent data collection and presentation are essential for sustained improvements in the quality of medical care. We need a timely and transparent representation of what happens in the system, both inpatient and outpatient. The collected data should be available for research under regulated conditions of use.
To link, we need a sec-
uniform ID across all providers (e.g. KV number), which enables different data sets to be linked to each other.
Patient-specific data should then also be able to be integrated in an anonymized form with higher quality and granularity.
We recommend establishing a central federal institute that provides all relevant data promptly and knows which data is collected and stored where. The central federal institute will be linked to other decentralized data sources in a star-shaped manner, have direct access to all legally collected data from the healthcare system (e.g., cancer registry data, outpatient data, statutory health insurance data, the Medical Informatics Initiative), and can make it available promptly and on an ad hoc basis. The newly established institute will be independent and free of vested interests. In addition, patients and citizens should also be able to donate their own collected data to the central institute.
The data are necessary to present regional and supra-regional healthcare in a transparent, sector-independent manner, to manage it regionally and to initiate quality improvements.

3 Putting knowledge into practice
We must translate established medical knowledge into practice, promote the implementation of guidelines across the board, and simultaneously simplify their use. To this end, the AWMF (Association of German Medical Societies in Medicine and Healthcare) should be financially strengthened and enabled to publish and update living guidelines for all relevant treatment areas. A system similar to the "MAGICapp" (https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3379) is necessary for this. The goal should be to develop guidelines that are practically implementable in the respective care settings. At the same time, greater binding force must be created.
In light of demographic change, cost increases for some therapies (e.g. in oncology and rare diseases), large regional differences and freedom of treatment, greater binding force for the implementation of evidence-based guideline recommendations should be sought, for example through positive lists.

4 Expand innovation funds and strengthen independence
Evidence-based innovations must be implemented more quickly in healthcare. To ensure and improve the quality of care and patient safety, independent healthcare research in Germany must be further expanded and supplemented with implementation research. The Innovation Fund should be expanded and made permanent for this purpose. An independent scientific committee with patient participation must decide on the allocation of funds.
At the same time, greater support for implementation for-
research and monitoring of implementation
mentation processes. <