AWMF Executive Board confirmed in office for another three years

18.05.2018 10:41

Digitalization and economization in medicine are two of the future topics in which the Working Group of Scientific Medical Societies e. V. (AWMF) would like to set new accents from the perspective of scientific medicine in the next few years. On April 21, 2018, the delegates of the member professional societies confirmed the members of the Executive Board chaired by Prof. Dr. med. Rolf Kreienberg, Mainz in their offices. New to the executive board is the internist Professor Dr. med. Joachim Mössner, Leipzig. The assembly of delegates also voted positively on the application for membership by the German Society for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery (DGOU) as a new member society. In total, the AWMF now represents 178 medical and scientific societies.

Digitalization in medicine, its opportunities and risks, represent complex challenges for the AWMF and its member companies: On the one hand, there are more and more digital offerings that directly intervene in the diagnosis and therapy of patients in the form of medical devices. The extent to which these technologies are evidence-based and can be used with quality assurance is a question to which there is currently no uniform answer. The aim of the AWMF Ad Hoc Commission for Medical Devices is to actively help scientific medicine shape the creation and qualification process of these digital products. On the other hand, the AWMF has been dealing with the question of how the creation, distribution and evaluation of guidelines could be better supported digitally for some time. One of the essential tasks of the AWMF is to intensively support the interdisciplinary specialist societies under its umbrella in their guideline work. A concept for digital knowledge management should now be developed. One goal will be to anchor guideline recommendations even faster and better in clinical and practice care in the future.

Economization in medicine is another important topic that affects almost all medical disciplines. Many specialist societies are particularly concerned about the inpatient area. The DRG system identifies “lucrative” and “less lucrative” benefits. Due to the high economic pressure that many hospitals are suffering from, this sometimes creates the wrong incentives. “We have to avoid these and ensure that there are no negative effects on patient care,” explains President Rolf Kreienberg. “Over-, incorrect and under-supply can be the result, as we have already criticized as part of the AWMF initiative “Smart Decisions Together”,” continued Kreienberg. Approaches must be developed that enable evidence-based medical care at all levels, take appropriate account of spoken medicine and strengthen trust between doctor and patient. “Our goal is to develop a common position paper,” emphasizes Kreienberg. Not least for this reason, the AWMF will also make economization in medicine a topic at its Berlin forum in November.

“When dealing with such big topics as digitalization or economization, it is helpful if we can rely on experienced experts in and outside the presidium,” says Kreienberg. Various medical disciplines have always been represented on the Executive Board. In the election on April 21, 2018, alongside the AWMF President, Professor Dr. med. Rolf Kreienberg, Mainz also the deputy presidents, the neurophysiologist Professor Dr. med. Rolf-Detlef Treede from Heidelberg/Mannheim and Professor Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Wilfried Wagner, oral and maxillofacial surgeon from Mainz, confirmed in her positions. New to the Executive Board is Professor Dr. med. Joachim Mössner, director of the clinic and polyclinic for gastroenterology and rheumatology at the Leipzig University Hospital, who succeeds Professor Dr. med. Georg Ertl competes. The executive board also includes Professor Dr. med. Karl Heinz Rahn (Past President, Internal Medicine), Dr. med. Manfred Gogol (treasurer, geriatrics), Professor Dr. med. Peter G. Falkai (Psychiatry and Psychotherapy), Professor Dr. med. Christoph Herrmann-Lingen (Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy), Professor Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Meyer (surgery), Professor Dr. med. Claudia Spies (anaesthesiology and surgical intensive care medicine) and Dr. jur. Albrecht Wienke (medical law).