Patient-oriented Research

It is a well-known fact that Germany has a good medical care system. However, time and again failures in the care system are discovered - too often involving major common diseases. In the past, research focused mainly on medical care or rehabilitation research. Patient-oriented research now studies how to care for patients in their daily life. The new funding priority "Patient Orientation and Chronic Diseases" met with a great response in 2006: All in all, almost 390 project proposals were submitted; 42 of the projects can be funded. These high numbers confirm the enormous innovation potential for patient orientation and care.

Patients with chronic diseases and disabled people are often treated by many different institutions. The services provided by these institutions are financed by different social insurance agencies. However, research in the past focused mainly on isolated areas. To change this, the Federal Government and the social insurance agencies concluded a new alliance for health care research in 2006.

For the first time, funds are available for medical, rehabilitative and cross-sectoral questions. Partners are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German pension fund), the umbrella organizations of the statutory health insurance funds and the Verband der privaten Krankenversicherung e.V (association of private health insurance funds). All in all, about 21 million Euro will be available until 2012. This is a unique funding initiative in Germany. It establishes research oriented and comprehensive care. The patient is given centre stage in research under the funding priorities "Chronic Diseases" and "Patient Orientation".

Patient orientation is meeting with huge interest

The new funding priority on patient-oriented research is meeting with great response. All in all, almost 390 project applications were submitted for the funding priority which was initiated jointly by the BMBF, Deutsche Rentenversicherung, the umbrella organizations of the statutory health insurance and the Verband der privaten Krankenversicherung e.V. This unusually high number of applications demonstrates the great interest in this topic and the enormous potential for innovation which can currently be observed in patient orientation in both science and care. 42 out of the many applications were selected for project funding.

Increasingly, chronic diseases are determining the situation in the healthcare sector. This is primarily due to demographic developments and medical progress. Complex diseases represent new challenges for curative and rehabilitative care. As a consequence, there is a growing need for a consistent patient and/or user orientation.

A patient-oriented approach to caring for patients with chronic diseases must pursue a two-pronged line:

• On the one hand, the orientation of care systems, health-care providers and services towards individual patient needs.
• On the other hand, patient orientation also means care structures which support the self-management and responsibility of patients. Targeted patient information and efficient training programmes for patients with chronic diseases are important topics.

This is being taken into account increasingly in the healthcare system. Funding gives science an opportunity to test the best concepts in everyday use as to their impact and effectiveness.

Scientists will soon be looking into areas such as evaluating rehabilitation training concepts, providing innovative patient information in hospitals, and how the wishes of patients can be integrated into the work of GPs. Numerous funding applications are also dealing with research projects in patient-oriented care to overcome the boundaries between different care sectors and network these sectors. The "Patient-oriented Research" funding priority thus contributes to a more effective and clearer presentation of the complex care system for patients with chronic diseases. Patients are more actively involved in their own health care.