Original article
Every year more than 1.2 million people die of cancer in Europe. This means that a city the size of Munich, Prague or Brussels will succumb to cancer this year too. Due to the geriatricization of our population, we will double the number of cancer patients within the next 20 years. We can therefore assume that 30% of people in Europe will develop cancer during their lifetime. Although oncologists have been administering chemotherapy for over 50 years, the question of what the indication cancer means for patients has so far only been rudimentarily asked, even though around half of all patients will succumb to their suffering in 2009. For this reason, the Health Care Competence Center (HC3) in Zurich, in cooperation with the European Health Care Foundation Zurich (EUHCF), has addressed the issue of “information behavior of cancer patients”.
01.08.2009
Patient coaching as an innovative service in the healthcare system serves the purpose of promoting compliance, adherence, active participation and self-management of patients in coping with their illness, taking individual preferences into account. In this article, based on a definition of patient coaching, its necessity is derived from the high non-compliance or non-adherence rate, particularly among chronically ill and multimorbid patients. These are patients who require approximately 4/5 of all services provided by the health system. Compliance and adherence are described in terms of their importance as descriptive markers for the quality of patient cooperation in the treatment process. It should be noted that they should also be questioned with regard to their different causes (e.g. system-related, communication-related, individual/preference-related) so that a targeted and promising intervention can result in individual cases.
01.08.2009
The high treatment costs of tobacco-related diseases and the immense economic damage caused by smoking will exacerbate the financing problems of social systems in the future. One approach to addressing this problem is to reduce the prevalence of smoking through evidence-based tobacco cessation measures such as nicotine replacement therapy (NET). In some European countries, particularly Great Britain, these findings have given nicotine replacement therapy an important role in public health programs. The therapeutic effectiveness and the achievable health economic effects make NET a dominant strategy for smoking cessation in this country too. The latest study results based on data from the German health system show that, particularly for smokers with previous illnesses, the financial resources for NET are not only used cost-effectively, but are even overcompensated by avoided health care costs. For Germany, the study results presented and the international experience provide reason to reposition nicotine replacement therapy with regard to the degree of use and integration into the healthcare system.
01.08.2009
Eberhard Mehl, Chief Executive of the German General Practitioners Association, in an interview with MVF:
01.06.2009
A look beyond the obvious with the Bertelsmann Foundation's Health Policy Monitor
01.06.2009
Frank Gotthardt, CompuGroup, in an interview with MVF:
01.06.2009
Direct contracts started out as discount contracts for pharmaceuticals. In the meantime, however, it is becoming apparent that they are covering more and more areas of care through general practitioner and specialist contracts. Everyone should benefit from these contracts: Health insurance companies have a better influence on the service, service providers receive better remuneration and patients better care. But it shouldn't cost more either. Whether this is successful can only be shown by means of health services research. It should also be noted that direct contracts must not put you in a worse position than standard care. This specification, which has received little attention in the previous discussion, is a steep template for health services research.