Abstracts by keywords: Health Services Research
Psychische und neurologische Erkrankungen stellen das Gesundheitssystem vor wachsende Herausforderungen. In Deutschland leiden jährlich 27,8% der erwachsenen Bevölkerung an psychischen Erkrankungen (Jacobi et al., 2014). Die häufigsten Diagnosen sind mit 15,4% Angststörungen und mit 9,8% affektive Störungen wie Depressionen (DGPPN e. V., 2025). Mit der Covid-19-Pandemie ist eine deutliche Zunahme an Angstsymptomen und depressiven Symptomen zu beobachten (Robert Koch Institut, 2024). Risikofaktoren wie chronische Schlafstörungen (Insomnie) oder andere Schlafstörungen betreffen 26,7% der Deutschen (van de Straat & Bracke, 2015). Zudem sind 1,8 Mio. Menschen von einer Demenzerkrankung betroffen, was etwa 2,2% der deutschen Bevölkerung entspricht (Blotenberg et al., 2023). Letztere ist eine altersbedingte und neurodegenerative Erkrankung, bei der im Zuge der demografischen Transformation von weiter steigenden Zahlen auszugehen ist. Die gesundheitliche und wirtschaftliche Belastung durch diese Erkrankungen ist erheblich.
30.11.2025
The healthcare landscape for patients with chronic inflammatory diseases in Germany appears highly heterogeneous, including with regard to intersectoral care. Significant differences in interdisciplinary collaboration exist, particularly with regard to its structure and organization. Uniform standards and binding quality criteria, such as those required by and for inflammation centers, are also lacking in the outpatient sector. In individual interviews and web conferences with specialists from inflammation centers and outpatient specialists in dermatology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology, recommendations were developed on how intersectoral collaboration could be optimized. The results particularly confirm the experience that uncomplicated communication between specialists working in inflammation centers and in outpatient settings is essential. A dedicated contact person in the inflammation centers and uniform access routes were clearly the top priorities for action.
02.02.2025
Participation of stakeholders in health services research: political expectations, benefits and practical impulses
The politically formulated expectations of active involvement, ie the participation of those involved and those affected, in health and health care research are high in Germany. However, so far there has been little participatory research and there is little transparency about whether, when and how intensively stakeholders are involved in projects, which is forced by various circumstances.
04.02.2023
The fact that it is still not known how many people die at home in Germany is chosen as the starting point for the argument in favor of establishing a place of death register. For this purpose, the fundamental importance - with quite heterogeneous objectives and functional purpose - of medical registers is made recognizable. It becomes clear that a register of places of death can be expected to be of great benefit in the short term, particularly for health care planning and health policy, but also in the medium term for the development of the quality of care and for findings for health care research and epidemiological studies in the medium to long term. This applies to all places (milieus, settings) of care. In order to design such a place of death register effectively in terms of content and function, an interdisciplinary working group with transsectoral experience extending beyond palliative care should be brought together. However, the precise - and annually reported - determination of the place of death would be a clear and practically easy to achieve progress.
04.04.2019
On the occasion of the 2019 SpringSchool of the German Network for Health Services Research in April 2019, Christian Klose (Department "Digitization and Innovation" of the BMG) presented the BMG's roadmap for the development of the Digitization Act (1). This presentation is valuable for several reasons, although the reason for the connection between "digitization and innovation" is not immediately obvious. The value becomes apparent in the description of the determinants to be taken into account*. The Institute of Clinical Economics (ICE) eV is therefore establishing a new working group that deals with the practical application of technical advances in telecommunications in health services research. In this first part of our report, the preliminary work of politics is briefly mentioned and the preliminary work of science is described: The differences between clinical research (KF) and health services research (SR).
04.04.2019
The diagnosis of dementia is an enormous emotional and financial burden for many of those affected and their relatives. At the same time, it represents a major cultural and political challenge for society. There are no treatment options. It is therefore important for everyone involved to learn to live with dementia and to find ways that enable them to live a good life despite the illness (cf. Klie 2017). Dementia is the most common “mental” illness in older people and one of the most common reasons for the need for care. The most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer's disease (ICD codes F00. & G30.) and vascular dementia (ICD F01.), which is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the brain. There are also secondary forms of dementia (F02.), e.g. B. in connection with Parkinson's or HIV, and unspecified forms of dementia (F04.). These five ICD codes were used in the analysis to identify patients with dementia and a level of care.
04.06.2018
Germany has a care problem. What has long remained in the silence of the daily struggle of nurses to somehow provide adequate care for their patients is now reaching the public and is being taken up prominently in the political process. For example, the EU-funded RN4CAST study, which was carried out from 2009 to 2011, provided objective evidence of the “nursing crisis”1: while in the USA a nurse cared for an average of 5.3 patients in a hospital and in Norway for 3.4 to While 8.2 patients were responsible, the care ratio in Germany was between 7.5 and 19.2. This means that the best facilities in Germany were only slightly better than the worst in Norway. Germany is therefore at the bottom of all countries considered.
06.12.2017
In recent years, expectations of health care research in Germany, especially from a health policy perspective, have increased enormously [4, 5]. The main reasons are not only general social developments, but also the need for comprehensive improvement efforts and the need for effective structural innovations. Health services research must therefore continuously and comprehensibly develop its conceptual foundations, as is the aim in the memoranda of the German Network for Health Care Research and in the completely revised 2nd edition of the “Textbook for Health Care Research” [2].
24.07.2017
The healthcare systems of industrialized countries are extremely complex. Anyone who wants to understand, control or improve them absolutely needs functional health services research. Anyone who wants to evaluate innovations in the context of everyday situations cannot ignore efficient health services research. There is no dissent about this in Germany. Funding programs of the BMBF for the development of research structures and for the consolidation of data as well as the anchoring of the innovation fund in the social code also testify to the willingness to invest in the development of health services research in Germany. Alone, there is a lack of the necessary legal basis on the basis of which financial investments in health services research can mature into the development of a sustainable and efficient research infrastructure. Without data there is no research, and without a suitable legal basis, German health services research lacks the necessary access to data. The formal reason to tackle this "hot potato" is given: the forthcoming implementation of the European data protection regulation in German law. The time frame for this is limited, namely until the end of 2018. The (old and new) federal government should not wait too long for other reasons. Other parliaments, for example in the United Kingdom, have long recognized the international competitive pressure and have already taken action. In the next few years it will be decided whether Germany will be the leader in 'Big Data' in health services research or whether it will lead an international niche existence in health services research in the long term. This question will also decide whether Germany will continue to be an export country for health technology or become an import country. Anyone who wants to keep Germany as a research location at the top of the world in the field of health services research must now oblige the departments of research, health, economy and internal affairs to set up a joint action program for health services research, which should be approved by the Bundestag as soon as possible.
29.11.2016
It can be assumed that due to demographic developments, increasing mobility in old age and the increasing number of obese people, osteoarthritis and thus also the implantation of knee endoprostheses will continue to increase in the coming years (Großschädl/Stronegger 2013; Weinstein et al. 2013; Koenig and Kirschner 2003). Knee arthroplasty is a highly standardized procedure that is well suited to be processed using a treatment pathway. Through the implementation of clinical treatment paths, an improvement in the process could be achieved, which is partly responsible for the fact that the revision rate and length of stay for knee prosthesis implantations has been continuously reduced (Loftus et al. 2014; König/Kirschner 2003; Lüring et al. 2010). The main benefit of presenting the course of treatment for knee endoprostheses and using this as a guide in practice is that this ensures structured patient care (Lüring et al. 2010). The analysis of specific routine data using an adapted treatment path makes it possible to identify potential in the course of treatment and opens up possibilities for improvement in terms of better therapy results [Graf/Hofmann 2003; Wirth 2003]. The most important data source for health services research in Austria is routine data from social health insurance providers. If the data is well prepared, it is possible to analyze it to create transparency with regard to trends and costs in health services research as well as basic knowledge for health care planning (Pfaff et al. 2011; Howell et al. 2009).