The MSD Health Award is awarded annually and has been promoting innovative care models since 2011. In addition to financial support, the MSD Health Award offers award winners the opportunity to further expand their own network and receive new impetus for the project.

The inav GmbH has been supporting MSD Germany since 2012 in various areas related to the MSD Health Award. This includes the documentation and keywording of the participating projects and the award winners for the MSD project database. In addition, we accompany the MSD Health Award with various publications and other communication measures.

Prof. Dr. Volker Amelung is also a member of the jury for the MSD Health Prize.

Download brochure for MSD Health Award 2023 (German language)

Download brochure for MSD Health Award 2022 (German language)

Six Local Health Centers (LGZ) are currently being established in Hamburg to improve healthcare in socially and health-wise disadvantaged districts. The concept for the LGZs follow the PORT concept of the Robert Bosch Stiftung: The foundation has already been funding “Patient-Oriented Centers for Primary and Long-term Care” in Germany since 2015. The establishment of the Hamburg LGZ is funded by the Senate of Hamburg over a period of three years. The LGZs will operate at the interface of healthcare and social services. Characteristics are:

• Patient-oriented care in locally organized centers
• Cross-sectoral care
• Multiprofessional teamwork of medical, nursing and social counseling staff at eye level
• Interdisciplinary cooperation of local counseling centers
• Cross-sectional/primary counseling to improve the social situation
• Offers for prevention and health promotion
• Good integration in the districts

The Hamburg Social Authority and the Robert Bosch Foundation have concluded a cooperation agreement to evaluate the conception and implementation of the new centers in Hamburg. Together with the aQua Institute, inav GmbH is conducting an accompanying evaluation of the six LGZs. The aim of the evaluation is to provide scientific support for the transition of the primary care centers to regular care and to measure the achievement of the goals. The evaluation is based on a mixed-methods design and includes the following elements:

• Participant observation in all six LGZs
• Guideline-based interviews with stakeholders in the LGZs and in the districts
• Interviews with patients and users of the service
• Small-scale routine data analysis (impact analysis at district level)
• Secondary data analysis of the performance data of the LGZs

The evaluation is financed by the Robert Bosch Center for Innovative Health at the Bosch Health Campus in Stuttgart (formerly the health funding department of the Robert Bosch Foundation).

The inav and the OptiMedis AG are jointly supporting the Swiss health insurance company SWICA in the development of a sustainable, population-oriented health care model. After a literature review, a best practice evaluation and stakeholder interviews, a “big picture” for the possible implementation of value-based care concepts in Switzerland was outlined. The specification was conducted in cooperation with central stakeholders of a selected region in the framework of a business plan for a possible health care ecosystem. Based on existing regional health insurance data, potential analyses were conducted and used as a baseline for the definition of initial integrated care products. In addition, potential financing models were developed and the governance and organizational structures for a pilot implementation with selected service partners were designed.

In Switzerland, there is already extensive experience with new forms of controlling and financing, on the one hand in cooperation with office-based physician groups, and on the other hand through the development of different tariffs with, in part, telemedical access models. Overall, however, these attempts have not yet led to a comprehensive cross-sectoral regional coordination and provision of services that reflects international experience and also rewards the maintenance of a healthy population.

The conclusions from the best practice analysis are relevant for SWICA – just as they are for other parties involved in the development of an innovative care model:

1. New health care delivery systems must be aligned with today’s health care stakeholders’ demands for entrepreneurial activity and work-life balance. Compensation should therefore increasingly reward benefits rather than service volumes.
2. The changes toward integrated care are particularly complex. Therefore, the health care models and their governance structures must relate to larger population collectives, include a variety of professional groups and their partially conflicting interests, and thus be resilient enough to withstand disputes.
3. In predominantly privately organized healthcare systems, regional “healthcare ecosystems” are developing more frequently, becoming contract partners for payers either on the level of a few professional groups and indications or across entire populations and their diseases. It seems reasonable to include some of the regional providers in the governance body structures.
4. The examples show that these types of regional “healthcare ecosystems” experiment with population sizes between 20,000 and 200,000. It appears reasonable to include the largest proportion possible of the region’s total population. It is also important for the participating local healthcare players to care for the largest possible proportion of their patients within the framework of the new integrated healthcare approach, to ensure the processes can be implemented effectively and sustainably.
5. In many best practices, digital innovations such as the introduction of telemedicine or an integrated patient record are the basis for implementing more efficient health care pathways. They support the joint definition of standards and guidelines for communication and collaboration between stakeholders.
6. All best practices under consideration are increasingly focusing on prevention, i.e., on earlier intervention in the outpatient setting, in particular to enhance patient satisfaction, but also to reduce the need for more cost-intensive hospital treatments. Intelligent use of health care data and population risk stratification enable identification of relevant risk groups and thus an earlier and more targeted approach to the affected populations. Interdisciplinary cooperation between the various professional groups and stronger links between the healthcare and social systems are important factors in this context.

Photo: freepik | freepic.diller

The white paper ” Care of Early Alzheimer’s Disease” examines the current state of research and highlights the causes, diagnosis, and treatment approaches of early Alzheimer’s disease.

The number of people affected by dementia in Germany is steadily increasing, with Alzheimer’s disease being the main cause in two-thirds of cases. Nevertheless, early Alzheimer’s disease is being diagnosed too rarely. Thus, the stigma associated with the disease keeps many people from seeing a doctor. The white paper “Care of Early Alzheimer’s Disease” deals with the current state of research and sheds light on causes, diagnostics and therapeutic approaches of early Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the white paper provides proposed solutions to address existing and future care challenges. Experts consider prevention and early diagnosis to be crucial in this context.

At the beginning of the 2000s, Alzheimer’s disease could only be reliably diagnosed post-mortem by performing a brain autopsy. Today, the disease can be diagnosed prior to the onset of dementia. This became possible by detecting Alzheimer’s biomarkers, such as beta-amyloid or tau, in the cerebrospinal fluid or in positron emission tomography (PET), and likely in the near future also in the blood. These advances in Alzheimer’s research have far-reaching implications for the care of those affected and the reorganization of health care structures.

Among the most important learnings: Alzheimer’s care must start at an early stage. “We need interventions as early as possible to halt or slow the course of this progressive disease,” said Dr. Uwe Meier, chairman of the board of the Professional Association of German Neurologists (BDN) and a patron of the project. “In the case of advanced neurodegenerative degeneration, we can only accompany the course of the disease.”

In addition to the hope for pharmacological therapies, lifestyle aspects will also become more relevant in the future. “Whereas a decade ago dementia in Alzheimer’s disease was seen as a fateful event, today we assume that up to 40 percent of the risk of developing dementia depends on modifiable factors. It therefore seems possible to influence one’s own dementia risk by adopting an active and healthy lifestyle,” explains Prof. Dr. Frank Jessen, Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Cologne, who is a co-author and also a patron of the publication.

The National Dementia Strategy (NDS) signed by the German government in 2020 was an essential step. The task now is to set a new course in Germany to identify and treat early cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease in a timely manner. The care of patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease also requires significant effort. In the future, the care provision will also be concerned with ensuring that the expense of (differential) diagnostic procedures is appropriately remunerated and that appropriate structures are created. In addition, due to the expected growing needs, Alzheimer’s care will require a higher degree of networking between the treatment providers involved. In the view of the experts involved, pilot models, digital solutions and the expansion of outpatient memory clinics will therefore be key components of future care.

Publication

Free download of the white paper “Care of Early Alzheimer’s Disease” is available under: https://alzheimer-dialog.de/ (German language version only)

Transparency Note

The White Paper was prepared with the financial support of Biogen GmbH.

PANOS has the goal of sustainably improving the care of Parkinson’s patients in the region of Eastern Saxony. This is based on a digitally supported integrated and cross-sectoral care concept.

The care of people with chronic, age-related diseases such as Parkinson’s disease represents a core medical care challenge. The Saxony region is particularly affected in this regard: Firstly, the population has the highest average age in Germany, and secondly, more than 50 percent of the population lives in rural areas far from a highly diversified medical infrastructure.

The prevalence of idiopathic Parkinson’s syndrome will continue to increase with the demographic development. Today, there are already more than 32,000 Parkinson’s patients living in Saxony, 41 percent of these patients are not treated by neurologists but by general practitioners. In order to meet the increasing number of people affected and the increasing therapeutic requirements, it is necessary to join forces in a specialized care network.

Within the framework of PANOS, a digitally supported, intersectoral and pathway-based care concept is to be established in a sustainable manner. It focuses on the late phase of the disease. The basis for a standardized, quality-assured and efficient patient care is a structured medical pathway.

The treatment concept of PANOS is based on six pillars:

1. Network: Development of an intersectional and integrated care network
2. Care pathway: structure as the foundation of quality and efficiency
3. Intersectoral electronic medical record and digital sensors: digital innovation as base for collaborative pathway-based patient care
4. Parkinson’s disease guides as intersectoral case managers and personal points of contact for patients and service providers: the personnel backbone of the network
5. School for patients and further education as a foundation for standardized treatment: knowledge dissemination for patients and care providers
6. Evaluation: what are the effects of PANOS as a care delivery intervention?

In the PANOS project, the inav is particularly responsible for activities in the area of network and quality management. This includes the identification, prioritization and approach of potential network partners. The aim is to establish a lively network of actors involved in Parkinson’s care in Eastern Saxony. Furthermore, the inav gathers and processes data together with other consortium partners to ensure the network structure as well as the process and outcome quality.

PANOS is funded by the German government based on a decision of the German Bundestag. The project is also co-financed from tax revenues under the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament.

Further information

www.panos.care

The inav supports various Parkinson’s networks in Germany since 2020. Within the framework of the working group “Networks and Digital Care” of the German Society for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, we manage networking activities on a national level. The Parkinson Network Germany will be a meta structure in the future, which will take over tasks of coordination, communication, quality assurance, public relations and nationwide networking.

Parkinson’s Network Conference 2022

An important forum for know-how transfer and networking among the regional networks is the Parkinson’s Network Conference, which took place for the third time in 2022. After the events in 2020 and 2021 were held online due to the pandemic, the 2022 conference took place in Berlin in person for the first time. A total of 100 participants attended the event at the Willy Brandt Haus, including physicians, therapists, scientists, and representatives of health insurers and industry.

In keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and sponsored symposia, the participants developed solutions for the challenges of Parkinson’s care. One of the topics discussed was the great importance of multi-professional cooperation at eye level, which involves all care providers for Parkinson’s patients. In addition to general practitioners, specialists and clinics, this includes, for example, physiotherapeutic and speech therapy practices, case managers, specialized nursing staff, pharmacies, providers of remedies and aids, and other initiatives such as exercise programs for Parkinson’s disease patients.

Another important point of discussion was also the remuneration of network tasks. “Parkinson’s networks play a decisive role in improving the care of Parkinson’s patients. But network tasks also involves more effort, and this should be remunerated. In the workshop, we discussed intensively how this could be done. A model could be the field of psychiatry, where such services have already become part of standard care,” said co-moderator Sebastian Wachtarz, Director Government Affairs & Public Affairs, AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG.

Download the results report here (German language version).

On behalf of the working group “Networks and Digital Care” we would like to thank the conference sponsors for their support of the event.

Gold sponsor: AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG

Silver sponsors: Esteve Pharmaceuticals GmbH, STADAPHARM GmbH

Bronze sponsors: Abbott Medical GmbH, Bial Deutschland GmbH, Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH, Zambon GmbH

The next Parkinson’s Network Congress is scheduled for December 2-3, 2023.

In January 2020, the German Bundestag (Parliament) passed a number of reforms to the legislation on organ donation. The so-called decision solution that has existed to date remains unchanged. However, in the future, the discussion and education about organ and tissue donation will be promoted and the personal decision will be better documented. As part of the Act to Encourage the Willingness to Donate Organs, an online registry is to be set up and general practitioners will be given the opportunity to provide their patients with open and unbiased advice on organ and tissue donation every two years.

In light of these changes, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) aimed to update the existing information material for general practitioners and to include the needs of general practitioners in the revision process in order to ensure maximum acceptance within the target group.

The aim of the evaluation was to have the contents of the brochure “Information on Organ and Tissue Donation. A Guideline for General Practitioners” reviewed by the target group. The intention was to analyze the support needs of general practitioners on the subject of organ and tissue donation and to determine which form of presentation the target group would prefer. The evaluation was commissioned by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA).

Both qualitative and quantitative survey methods were used in a mixed methods approach. This included assessing the target group’s views on the potential for optimizing the presentation of the brochure and its content. In addition, potential needs for support and the practicability of various forms of presentation were surveyed.

Photo: freepik | tirachardz