• Charline Jedro, Christine Holmberg, Florian Tille, Jonas Widmann, Alice Schneider, Judith Stumm, Susanne Döpfmer, Adelheid Kuhlmey, and Susanne Schnitzer.
• Institute of Medical Sociology and Rehabilitation Science, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg- Universitätsmedizin Theodor Fontane, Brandenburg an der Havel; National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Berlin; Molecular Epidemiology Research Lab, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin; Institute of Biometry, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Institute of General Medicine, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
• Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020 Aug 31; 117 (35-36): 583-590.

BackgroundThe shifting of medical tasks (MT) to Qualified Medical Practice Assistants (MPA) is an option that can be pursued to ensure adequate health care in Germany despite the increasing scarcity of physicians. The goal of this study was to determine the acceptability of medical task-shifting to MPA among the general population.MethodsIn a nationwide, representative telephone survey, 6105 persons aged 18 or older were asked whether they would be willing to receive care from a specially trained MPA at a physician's office. Their responses were tested for correlations with sociodemographic characteristics by means of bivariate (chi-squared test, Mann-Whitney U test) and multivariable statistics (logistic regression).ResultsOf the respondents, 67.2% expressed willingness to accept the shifting of MT to an MPA for the treatment of a minor illness, and 51.8% for a chronic illness. Rejection of task-shifting was associated with old age, residence in western Germany, and citizenship of a country other than Germany. For example, non-Germans rejected task-shifting more commonly than Germans, for both minor illnesses (odds ratio [OR] 2.96; 95% confidence interval [2.28; 3.85]) and chronic illnesses (OR 1.61; [1.24; 2.10]).ConclusionFurther studies are needed to investigate the motives for rejection of medical task-shifting to MPA in order to assess the likelihood of successful nationwide introduction of a uniform delegation model.

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