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Mild cognitive impairment (LDB) is a common mental illness that occurs in approximately 16 % of older people without dementia [1]. The incidence rate of the disease has been estimated to be approximately 63.6 per 1,000 person-years [2]. LKB is considered a transitional state between normal cognition and dementia [3]. Studies with patients in German general practices have shown that one in four patients develops dementia within three years of the first LKB diagnosis. This underlines the importance of intensive care for these patients [3]. The risk factors for LKB have been analyzed by several authors in recent years [4–12]. A 2001 study showed that elevated serum cholesterol levels in midlife significantly increased the risk of developing LKB, adjusting the regression model for age and body mass index [4]. Two years later, it was found that ethnicity, education level, results of certain tests, cortical atrophy, MR-identified infarcts, and depression measures were positively associated with the LKB diagnosis [5]. In Germany, Luck et al. in 2010 found that older age, vascular diseases and subjective memory problems increased the risk of future development of LKB [6]. Most recently, a study of 1,278 people suggested that traumatic brain injury might reduce the age of onset of LKB [10]. The aim of the present study was to re-analyze the risk factors for the development of LKB in patients in German general practices based on the previous results.
22.01.2017
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary celebration of the “Scientific Institute of TK for Benefits and Efficiency in Health Care” (WINEG), which was founded ten years ago, Hamburg's Senator for Health and Consumer Protection, Cornelia Prufer-Storcks, found clear words about the relationship between health care research and politics. She herself would like to have “a rational basis” for her decisions more often, but what politicians then do with the results produced by health services research is a different topic. Examiner Storcks, with a dose of political self-criticism: “I am of the opinion that we could draw conclusions from the results of healthcare research more quickly and decisively.”
22.01.2017
Professors Dr. med. habil. Maria Eberlein-Gonska and Dr. Jochen Schmitt, both employed at the Dresden University Medical Center, are a very special team. While Eberlein-Gonska oversees quality management at one of Germany's largest hospitals, Schmitt works in the same building on the university campus in the field of health services research, often on topics that are of particular interest to quality manager Eberlein-Gonska—a win-win situation not only for both of them, but for the hospital and for healthcare as a whole. After all, what the two professors are researching together certainly has the potential to improve the quality of care itself—at least a little bit.
22.01.2017
A systematic review with meta-analysis based on randomized and non-randomized studies. Ensuring comprehensive, highly specialized medical care is a current health policy issue in Germany (1). Innovative care models are required, especially in structurally weak regions, to ensure specialist medical care (2). But new treatment concepts are also required for the exchange of relevant patient data from highly specialized medical disciplines, such as patients with rare diseases, in order to be able to make and communicate treatment decisions in a timely manner (3). Telemedicine applications promise the possibility of overcoming these hurdles and ensuring patients receive the medical care they need (4).
22.01.2017
A wide variety of medications with different mechanisms of action are available on the German market for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. In addition to established drugs that are frequently prescribed as part of guideline-based therapy, numerous new antidiabetic drugs have been approved and, with the introduction of the AMNOG (Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products) in 2011, have also been subject to benefit assessment. Physicians and patients are therefore constantly faced with the challenge of reviewing existing therapies and, if necessary, adapting them to new options. This article examines the differences in market penetration between the various drug classes and how these new introductions affect patients' daily care.
22.01.2017
Digitalization offers an opportunity to completely rethink and implement healthcare models. Demographic trends and medical innovations make addressing this issue impossible without prior consideration, asserts Klaus Rupp, Head of Healthcare Management at Techniker Krankenkasse (TK). At Medica in Düsseldorf, he presented at the Medica Econ Forum how future healthcare models can be conceived by consistently leveraging the possibilities of digitalization in all areas – from analysis and communication to organization. Funding from the Innovation Fund has also brought the realization of various digital healthcare models closer to reality.
22.01.2017
The self-confessed smoker Hecken rarely minces his words and is one of the few speakers and interview partners in the German healthcare system who, in addition to considerable depth of content, also have immensely entertaining humorous value. But there is also a trend-setting dimension: What G-BA boss Prof. Josef Hecken pointedly explains about the innovation fund and DMP this time - in what is now the third cover interview with "Monitor Healthcare Research" - can certainly serve as a kind of guideline for the current year be considered.
22.01.2017
Heart failure is one of the most medically and health-economically important diseases in Germany (Neumann et al. 2009; Gensichen et al. 2004; Zugck et al. 2010; Willich et al. 2013; Buhr et al. 2007). The prevalence of heart failure is strongly age-dependent, so it can be assumed that the costs for diagnosis and treatment of heart failure will increase in the coming years in view of the aging German population. A large part of the treatment costs for heart failure arise in the inpatient area (Zugck et al. 2010). Against this background, effective integrated care programs have the potential to improve the care of heart failure patients and at the same time prevent decompensations, which are particularly often treated in the inpatient setting. Effective new care programs make it possible to optimize treatment processes, especially in the outpatient area, and to actively involve patients in the treatment concept (Buhr et al. 2007).
29.11.2016
Special care management improves the living and care situation of people with dementia who live at home. Compared to patients who receive conventional care, they are better treated with medication. They are also less affected by depression or other neuropsychiatric symptoms. At the same time, the burden on the caring relatives is relieved. In addition, care management improves the quality of life for those patients who live with relatives.
29.11.2016
The Center for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Dresden University Medical Center has a very important special feature: The ZEGV is not simply seen as an add-on that simply conducts health services research, but is promoted as an integral component and cross-sectional area of the faculty and hospital, because it has been recognized that "a far greater impact is triggered when clinicians, patients and health services researchers are brought together."