Archive:
In Deutschland sind mittlerweile ca. 37 Millionen Erwachsene übergewichtig (BMI > 25) oder adipös (BMI > 30). Laut Angaben des Bundesministeriums für Gesundheit sind 19 % der in Deutschland lebenden Männer und 22 % der Frauen adipös. Experten sprechen bereits von epidemischen Ausmaßen. Auch die Panel-Basisstatistik des Zentralinstituts für die Kassenärztliche Versorgung bestätigt die Verbreitung der Adipositas: Die entsprechende ICD-10-Diagnose E66 war demnach im 1. Quartal 2007 die siebthäufigste Diagnose bei den Allgemeinarztpatienten. 8,5 % aller Patienten wurden als adipös diagnostiziert. Die Ergebnisse der im Januar 2008 veröffentlichten „Nationalen Verzehrstudie des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz“ belegen ebenfalls die Zunahme von Übergewicht und Adipositas in Deutschland sowie die Zunahme der damit verbundenen Begleit- und Folgeerkrankungen. Insgesamt sind 58,2 % der Studienteilnehmer übergewichtig oder adipös, 66,0 % der Männer und 50,6 % der Frauen.
04.10.2012
Die derzeitigen Debatten in der Gesundheitspolitik werden stets mit Blick auf die Einnahmen- und Ausgabenseite des Gesundheitswesens geführt. Im Fokus sollte jedoch vielmehr das erklärte EU-Ziel „Steigerung gesunder Lebensjahre“ stehen. Aufgabe der Politik ist es, Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung zur vierten Säule des Gesundheitssystems auszubauen. Hierbei muss den Ansätzen in Lebenswelten eine herausragende Rolle zukommen. Gesundheit sollte als Querschnittsaufgabe in alle Politikbereiche implementiert werden. Unser Nachbarland zeigt mit seiner Stiftungslösung „Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz“, wie der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Aufgabe erfolgreich nachgekommen werden kann. Diesem Positivbeispiel sollte Deutschland folgen. Auch hierzulande gibt es bereits eine Reihe guter Maßnahmen, Ansätze, Praxisbeispiele sowie zahlreiche Akteure auf dem Feld der Gesundheitsförderung. Es fehlt jedoch an einer strategischen Ausrichtung, an der Zielorientierung, Vernetzung, flächendeckender Umsetzung sowie deren Evaluation. Ein institutionelles Design in Form eines Public-Health-Instituts ist notwendig.
04.10.2012
The scientific evaluation of Integrated Schizophrenia Care (IVS) in Lower Saxony aims to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the new care system. The initiative started in October 2010 in individual regions of Lower Saxony - in April of this year the coverage area was expanded to include neighboring regions. The aim of the joint initiative by AOK Niedersachsen, the management company I3G GmbH and Care4S Gmbh is a comprehensive care network for people with schizophrenia in order to improve their living situation. For Marlis Richter, Managing Director of I3G GmbH, the focus is “that the IVS is oriented towards the needs of patients and relatives, follows scientific guidelines and also integrates regional structures”. Only in this way can the care initiative become a groundbreaking model.
04.10.2012
Selective contracts in special outpatient medical care in accordance with Section 73c SGB V offer health insurance companies the opportunity to get the costs of treating chronically ill patients under control and at the same time to score points with their insured persons with new offers in care management. The new contract options introduced in 2007 with the Statutory Health Insurance Competition Strengthening Act are still only very rarely exploited. However, that could soon change. Selective contracts, which were once despised – often from the perspective of medical representatives – are on the rise.
04.10.2012
“Health care all-inclusive” or “3 in 1” - this is how the business model of the US healthcare system Kaiser Permanente could be described. Kaiser Permanente is a consortium of health insurers, clinic operators and physician organizations and serves 8.7 million members in nine US states, most of them, 75 percent, in California. The term “health network” is also appropriate because the service providers involved not only cooperate across sectors in their everyday practice. The network also connects the medical professionals digitally: they can view medical records via a common IT platform, and patients can contact them and view their own data via an integrated member portal. The company's own health network catches the insured early and focuses on prevention and wellness: it almost sounds too good to be true. But can the concept also be transferred to Germany? And what are the success factors of this exceptional model that has proven itself in the USA? “Monitor Healthcare Research” spoke on the sidelines of the DGbV Future Congress with Sophia Schlette, who worked at the Kaiser Permanente headquarters in Oakland for two years.
04.10.2012
In a recent healthcare analysis, INSIGHT Health examined drug therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus by age, gender, and region using routine data. The results show anomalies in all parameters examined, indicating a need for action in healthcare.
04.10.2012
The dispute over the reimbursement or non-reimbursement of blood sugar test strips is apparently over. After the negative benefit assessment by IQWiG, the G-BA's final assessment was published on March 17th of this year - also negative, albeit with some restrictions. No wonder that the Roche Diagnostics information event, which has been established in the specialist media for years, mainly revolved around this current topic, on which there is also new evidence: However, it probably comes a little too late, because the BMG did not object to the decision and went to it no new study situation at all.
04.10.2012
The serious crisis in the American healthcare system with a significant increase in chronic diseases, massively rising costs with uncertain financing, a lack of coordination with under- or incorrect care, and a lack of quality with the wrong incentive system is a major challenge for the actors involved and politicians. On the other hand, it offers a unique opportunity to make fundamental changes, the urgent need for which is recognized by all those involved. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), passed on March 23, 2010 as part of President Obama's healthcare reform, represents the legal basis for a performance- and results-oriented realignment, one of the elements of which is the establishment of accountable care organizations ( ACOs).
02.10.2012
With around six million diagnosed patients, diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in Germany. In addition, the number of diabetics is increasing - regardless of population aging (RKI 2011). In addition, diabetes is one of the most costly diseases. In statutory health insurance (GKV), a diabetic incurs about twice as high direct treatment costs as a non-diabetic insured person (Köster et al. 2006). Almost 30 percent of all diabetics are treated with insulin (Hauner 2007); These include all type 1 diabetics and those type 2 diabetics for whom the body's own insulin production is no longer sufficient despite lifestyle changes and treatment with oral antidiabetics. When it comes to insulin, a distinction can be made between mixed insulins, short-acting, so-called bolus insulins, and long-acting, so-called basal insulins. The latter include NPH insulin (Neutral Protamine Hagedorn), insulin glargine and insulin detemir. Basal insulin accounts for around 30 percent of the total daily insulin doses prescribed on an outpatient basis and 34 percent of statutory health insurance expenditure on insulin (Mengel 2010; INSIGHT Health 2011). The aim of the study presented here is to compare the costs of three treatment strategies that differ in terms of the basal insulin used. Only diabetics who received at least two prescriptions of either insulin glargine or insulin detemir or NPH insulin at the expense of the statutory health insurance in 2010 are included. The outpatient diabetes-related prescriptions for bolus insulins, antidiabetics, blood sugar test strips, needles and lancets billed via pharmacy computing centers are also taken into account. The prescriptions are valued at pharmacy sales prices (Lauer tax) less the statutory manufacturer discounts in accordance with Section 130a Paragraphs 1, 1a, 3b SGB V.
02.10.2012
In Germany, around 430,000 people develop cancer every year (RKI 2010), and the incidence of cancer is constantly increasing. Improved treatment options lead to a reduction in mortality. At the same time, chronic courses of the disease are increasing. For many people, it is now possible to live longer with their cancer. Psycho-oncology as a clinical and scientific discipline has been concerned with the psychological reaction patterns to cancer and psychological comorbidities of tumor patients for many years. The prevalence of psychological disorders and stress is estimated at around 25 to 30 % in these patients (Mehnert et al. 2006, Zabora et al. 2001, Härter et al. 2001, Reich 2008, Massie 2004, CMP 2007). In the studies, anxiety disorders were found in 1 to 49 %, depressive disorders in 0 to 58%, adjustment disorders in 2 to 52 % and post-traumatic stress disorders in 0 to 35 % of cases (Mehnert et al. 2006). Pain, distress, emotional strain of grief, helplessness and hopelessness as well as impairments in health-related and general quality of life are other common side effects of cancer (Mehnert et al. 2009, Weidner et al. 2006, Stock et al. 2006, Härtl et al . 2011, Stremmel et al. 2010).