Innovation Fund: German Cancer Society calls for results-oriented approach and transparent structures
16.10.2023 16:29
The German Cancer Society e. V. (DKG) advocates making the processes in the innovation fund more transparent and results-oriented. On the occasion of the “Focus on Oncology” event on October 12, 2023 in Berlin, DKG General Secretary Dr. Johannes Bruns, to optimize the effectiveness of the innovation fund.
“The innovation fund supported many useful projects. However, there is currently no clear mechanism as to how projects recommended for transfer can be converted into standard care,” emphasizes Bruns. “It is important that the institutions addressed have a greater obligation to follow the recommendations of the Innovation Committee. In addition, longer funding periods should be made possible.”
To date, the Innovation Fund has funded almost 600 projects in the areas of new forms of care and health care research with a total project volume of over 1.5 billion euros. Some of the DKG's health services research projects are also financed from the innovation fund. The fund aims to further develop and improve health care in Germany through targeted funding of innovative forms of care and health care research projects. In particular, existing supply limits should be overcome. “There is still a clear need for improvement here,” says Bruns. A look abroad, where implementation into standard care is considered from the outset, could also help to eliminate the weaknesses of the innovation fund and thus sustainably improve patient care.
“The innovation fund under scrutiny” – panel of experts at the “Focus on Oncology” on October 12, 2023 in Berlin
In the discussion round of the DKG event series “Brennpunkt Oncology”, experts from medicine, science and health insurance companies discussed experiences with and perspectives for the innovation fund. Prof. Dr. Dr. Martin Härter, Managing Director of the German Network for Health Services Research. V. (DNVF), analyzed the previous approach from the implementation of the funded projects to the recommendation and possible implementation. The innovation fund is a very important instrument for improving health care, but urgently needs new support measures to ensure that successful projects can be transferred into standard care, said Härter.
Dr. Ursula Marschall, head of the medicine and health services research department at the Barmer Institute for Health Systems Research, provided insights from project practice. “The existing selective contracts between hospitals and health insurance companies can only represent a temporary solution - but the aim must be to improve standard care,” emphasized Marschall.
As a former chairman of the Innovation Fund's expert advisory board, Prof. Dr. Holger Pfaff, Director of the Institute for Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science (IMVR), shares his experiences. “The innovation fund has created an important basis for the qualitative further development of healthcare,” said Pfaff. “We will have to evaluate the projects even more intensively in the future in order to increase the chances that they will be transferred to standard care.”