Zeitschrift für ärztliche Fortbildung und Qualitätssicherung
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
Shared decision-making in the Netherlands--current state and future perspectives.
Dutch government policy is aimed at introducing regulated competition among health care providers and among health care insurers and at empowering patients for being involved in decision-making in health care. Along with this, many Dutch organisations have been created to foster patient orientation within health care and increase patients' power for medical decision-making. The challenge is to deliver reliable and well-balanced information for patients and the public, eg. in patient-tailored web-based formats. ⋯ The theme of patient participation in medical decision making is a fairly widespread research topic theme in the Netherlands, including mutual exchange among the researchers in a vivid network. The real bottleneck is perhaps the implementation of patient participation into professional practice. Some recommendations for facilitating a change are made.
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The value of consensus recommendations for improving clinical practice may be restricted by the limitations of the evidence on which they are based. When few high quality studies are identified for evaluation from the specific field of interest, selected 'transferable' evidence from comparable clinical situations may add important information. ⋯ In particular, systems for grading of recommendations must take into account the different types of evidence used, so as not to give equivalent weight to transferable and specific evidence without justification. In this article, we discuss the use of transferable evidence by the PROSPECT Working Group, which has developed a clinical decision support programme (www.postoppain.org) to provide evidence and recommendations for procedure-specific postoperative pain management.
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Quality indicators are used world-wide to control the quality of health care. To be effective these indicators have to meet quality criteria themselves. But until now there has been no fully operational method for assessing indicators. ⋯ Particular characteristics of QUALIFY include clear definitions of all criteria, consistent information as the basis of assessment and a standardized approach throughout the assessment process. QUALIFY comprises 20 criteria which are assigned to the three categories relevance, scientific soundness and feasibility. It was tested during the assessment of 55 indicators and served as the methodological basis for selecting those quality indicators that German hospitals are required to report publicly.
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
[Interdisciplinarity and chronic pain therapy--implementation of a new Interdisciplinary Center at the University Hospital Dresden on the basis of an integrated health care contract].
Due to the bio-psycho-social complexity and presence of various health departments, chronic pain requires interdisciplinary cooperation which enables the accurate evaluation of the clinical findings and is a prerequisite for an individual and resource-oriented therapeutic concept focusing on both physical and mental activation. This concept forms the basis of medical care at the University Pain Center, which was founded in April 2004 at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital in Dresden. ⋯ Following a draft version of a coherent multimodal, interdisciplinary healthcare concept along with full cost accounting after 1 1/2 years, an integrative healthcare contract got signed by two health insurances (AOK-Sachsen and VdAK) in June 2004. After two years of existence, the first experiences, results and especially the Pain Center's treatment spectrum ought to be demonstrated.
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
Patient and citizen participation in German health care--current state and future perspectives.
Patient participation within the German healthcare system is described at three different levels: the macro level as active patient influence on the regulation of medical care, the meso level in terms of institutions enhancing patient information and counselling, and the micro level focusing on the actual treatment decision-making process in the medical encounter. The main focus of the present publication is on the health care system-specific influences on patient participation in medical decision-making and on the current state of research and implementation of shared decision-making in Germany. ⋯ The present state of the intervention projects' results is outlined as well as subsequently funded transfer projects and future perspectives of research grants. Supported by health politics and the utilisation of scientific evidence shared decision-making's transfer into practice is considered to be relevant to the German health care system.