DFG: Lebensmittel und Gesundheit. Hrsg. von der Senatskommission zur Beurteilung der gesundheitlichen Unbedenklichkeit von Lebensmitteln

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Bewertung von Krankheitserregern, die durch Blut übertragen werden

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Patienteninformation zur Bewertung von Gesundheitseinrichtungen

Background

Today, patient information is a central element for improving prevention and health promotion, as well as a patient right. But in daily practice, it can be shown that the provision of patients with information to assess healthcare services is insufficient.

Questions and aims

The researchers sought to understand which information is relevant to allow patients to assess quality and to help with their decision making. It is the aim of this article – on the basis of recent initiatives for quality assurance in the public health system – to compile perspectives and needs for improvement.

Results

An approach can be presented, the implementation of which can make an important contribution to ensure patients’ right to information as well as to strengthen health promotion and prevention as a whole.     

Addendum zur gesundheitlichen Bedeutung von Feinstaub in der Innenraumluft

Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz -     

Aktuelle Aspekte zur Risikobewertung von Allergenspuren in Lebensmitteln

In contrast to usual ingredients in processed packaged foodstuffs, there are no suitable and binding regulations for the labeling of unintentional allergen traces in these foods as yet. This situation is unsatisfactory in regard to the fact that even traces of undeclared "hidden" allergens can constitute a considerable health risk for food allergic consumers. Furthermore, the unintentional cross-contact (cross-contamination) of allergens is also an issue in regard to food manufacturer product liability and due diligence. Therefore, stakeholders consider imperative need for the scientific determination of maximum tolerable levels of allergen traces in order to establish thresholds for legally binding food labeling. In addition to conventional toxicological risk assessments, the risk assessment of allergen traces that would be necessary in this context nowadays also incorporates modern approaches such as benchmark procedures and probabilistic modeling and methods. The scientific debate concerning the establishment of safe threshold levels continues, and a consensus must still be reached.     

Mikrobiologische und immunologische Konzepte als Grundlage zur Bewertung von Impfungen

Background

Vaccination is a very important pillar in the prophylaxis of infectious diseases. Despite astonishing success in the past and the documented safety and efficacy of vaccination, numerous concerns have been raised with newly introduced vaccines.

Aims

To enable a correct assessment of vaccination as a medical procedure, the specific basics of infectious diseases and their epidemiological consequences must be recapitulated.

Results

This article explains the basic relationships of microbial pathogens and diseases and exemplifies the spread of the latter by presenting the concept of the basic reproductive rate. Consequences of these underlying principles for assessing vaccinations according to the rules of evidence-based medicine are deduced. Instruments of evidence-based medicine must consider the specificities of infectious diseases, namely the causal and direct relationships of pathogenic microbes and infectious disease as well as contagiosity.

     

Erstattung von Health-Apps durch die gesetzliche Krankenversicherung

Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz - Eine Erstattungskategorie „App“ existiert in der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV) nicht. Gleichwohl gibt es...     

Gesundheitsziele zur Stärkung der gesundheitlichen Kompetenz von Bürgern und Patienten

Despite the fact that there still exists little experience with health targets at the national level in Germany there is a growing interest in this management tool in health policy. An initiative for developing health targets at the national level was launched by the German government in December 2000 and is being administered by a platform representing a broad range of participants within the german health system (see other articles in this journal).This initiative, called “gesundheitsziele.de”, reflects the growing awareness not only for the approach of setting and implementing health targets, but for fostering patient orientation for overcoming a lack of quality and a lack of patient and public involvement in the german health sector. A special working group within the initiative was set up in January 2002 to develop health targets strengthening the health competencies of citiziens and patients.The following article outlines the range of goals and targets developed until autumn 2002. The four decisive areas for intervention focussed with the strategy are:improving transparency within the health system, strengthening health competencies of patients and increasing patient orientation of institutions in the health sector,developing patients'rights and improving the management of patients'complaints about medical treatment.     

Bewertung der Maßnahmen zur Reduktion schwerwiegender Transfusionsreaktionen (Hämovigilanzdaten von 1997 bis 2008)

On the basis of reports of serious transfusion reactions, measures aimed to improve the safety standard of the manufacturing process of blood components were evaluated from 1997–2008. Measures of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) as well as recommendations of the Advisory Committee ”Blood” were considered. Reporting frequencies before and after the implementation of measures were compared. After the implementation of NAT pool testing, a reduction of virus transmission was seen for red blood cell concentrates (RBC) from 1.0/106 to 0.5/106 units and for platelet concentrates (PC) from 3.0/106 to 0.0/106 units. After the implementation of a pre-donation sampling, however, no reduction of bacterial infections associated with PC administration (>9.0/106) was identified. To reduce the frequency of TRALI associated with FFP administration (11.2/106 units), the use of plasma from male donors or female donors without a history of pregnancy was established in September 2009. Without specific measures of risk reduction, the reporting frequency of severe allergic transfusion reaction increased for all blood components during the investigation period (from 0.8/106 to 6.2/106 RBC units). The benefit of measures to improve safety standards should be evaluated repeatedly by collecting precise hemovigilance data.     

Resistenzen durch die Anwendung von Tierarzneimitteln und Futterzusatzstoffen

Ohne Zusammenfassung Vortrag gehalten auf der Fortbildungsveranstaltung für den ?ffentlichen Gesundheitsdienst vom 5. bis 7. 3. 1997.