>> Since the 1980s, at the beginning of his scientific career at the University of Freiburg, Martin Härter has been concerned with questions about better care for people with chronic somatic or mental illnesses. His work began in 1985 with a nationwide evaluation project on psychosocial care in pediatric hematology and oncology. This can certainly be classified as an early example of translation research: This study led to psychosocial employees being hired at special centers nationwide in accordance with a staffing ratio calculated by Uwe Koch, Martin Härter and the team at the time. Since then he has been involved in health services research, although it was called something different back then; at that time it was still called evaluation research.
After more than 20 years of scientific work at the university and later at the university clinic in Freiburg - most recently from 2004 as head of the section for clinical epidemiology and health services research at the clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy - he accepted the call to the chair for medical psychology at the university clinic in Hamburg in 2008 -Eppendorf. This was different from other health services research-related chairs
However, there is no need for development work from scratch here: In Hamburg, under the aegis of his two predecessors - Margit von Kerekjarto (in 1975 she was appointed professor of medical psychology, which she held until her retirement in 1990) and Uwe Koch - Gromus (appointed to this chair in 1993, he took up the position of dean of the UKE in 2007) – pioneering work has been done and a well-organized scientific center for health services research has been established.
Since 2008, this center has developed into the well-known Center for Health Care Research (CHCR) and the Hamburg Network for Health Care Research (HAM-NET) thanks to Härter's significant contribution. The range of topics expanded to include research programs on patient involvement in medicine and epidemiological studies on psychosocial stress in physical illnesses.
In addition, from 2009 to 2017, Martin Härter took on the role of spokesman for the UKE research focus “Supply and
research” and in 2011 the speaker function
of the large joint project “psychenet”,
funded by the Federal Ministry
for Education and Research (BMBF). The
Hamburg Mental Health Network (www. psychenet.de) has contributed to strengthening psychosocial health care research and strengthened cooperative relationships with numerous actors in science, clinics, outpatient care, service providers, health policy and those affected. It was and is a focal point for further successes in the Hamburg region, including in the innovation fund and BMBF structural funding for health care research.
Harder is anything but alone. 140 employees and three other professors support him in his work. After appointing numerous employees of the institute to chairs and professorships in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Prof. Dr. phil. Dipl.-Psych. Monika Bullinger as deputy director of the quality of life research working group; Prof. Dr. phil. Dipl.-Psych. Corinna Bergelt leads the psycho-oncology research group. In addition, Dr. Holger Schulz appointed to the Endowed Chair for Health Services Research in Mental and Oncological Illnesses. This year, another endowed professorship for health services research in rare childhood diseases will be established – funded for five years by the “Kindness for Kids Foundation”.
The interweaving of research, clinical and teaching is a particularly important feature of the institute. The focus of research and work is in the areas of health services research for mental and chronic physical illnesses, somatopsychic interactions, patient orientation, prevention and rehabilitation as well as psycho-oncology. In addition, the scientific environment with numerous neighboring health care institutes, the wide-ranging university clinic and the connection to the Center for Health Care Research (CHCR) is particularly important for the work in the institute. The CHCR brings together numerous institutions in Hamburg that are successful in the field of health services research and that competently cover relevant topics and methodological areas of internationally competitive health care research.
Martin Härter also holds other important functions: In 2008, he was appointed as an expert in the Federal Government's National Cancer Plan to strengthen patient orientation. Since 2014 he has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the Federal Association of Managed Care (BMC eV). From 2005-2016 he was coordinator of the S3 and the National Care Guideline “Unipolar Depression”. Since 2016, he has also been managing the activities of the Medical Center for Quality in Medicine (ÄZQ) as scientific director with regard to the creation of national care guidelines and their accompanying products.
What drives Härter – psychologist and doctor – in one person? The answer is actually quite simple: He tries to help those involved in the healthcare system become more oriented towards the people they care for. This means that individual preferences and needs of patients and their families are given greater consideration and care is more closely aligned with current evidence-based guidelines.
In addition, he has been testing innovative care approaches for many years with a focus on mental and serious physical illnesses, which are intended to achieve improvements for patients and practitioners on the basis of cooperative and cross-sector models with e-health support. His personal goal is to ensure that as many of these approaches as possible are consistently integrated and taught in care, but also in the training of students and further education and training.
That's why the Institute and the Polyclinic for Medical Psychology don't just carry out health services research, but rather develop it as a result of their daily work. The psychological and psychosocial care of severely chronically physically ill people constantly results in a completely natural connection to health services research, because questions arise with each individual patient. This comes from the care of cancer patients, from the consultation and liaison service we also provide, or from the care of transplant patients. Härter: “We have a traditionally grown, now very large research institute that has dealt with various issues since the beginning, even if many of our issues used to not be grouped under the label of health services research, but rather under rehabilitation, prevention or even evaluation research .” Of course the studies were also published – around 130 per year! And will continue to do so in the future: More than 100 doctoral students at the UKE's CHCR are currently working on healthcare studies. <<
by: MVF editor-in-chief Peter Stegmaier