Der Internist
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Patients with rare diseases often receive insufficient medical care. The European Reference Networks (ERNs) were initiated by the European Union to improve healthcare for patients with rare and complex diseases within Europe. ⋯ Standardization of treatment, coordination of research projects as well as training and teaching of patients, patient representatives and healthcare professionals are means to reach this goal. Virtual case discussions are offered via a web-based platform (Clinical Patient Management System), in which experts from the ERNs advise treating physicians on the diagnosis and therapy of rare diseases.
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Cardiovascular medicine is one of the most resource-consuming parts of the healthcare system and many examples of overdiagnostic and overtreatment can be found. The present article presents just three of these, one from cardiology and two from vascular medicine. ⋯ The potential for harm caused by overdiagnostics in both cases lies not only in the unnecessary use of resources but, more importantly, in the subsequent overtreatment. The few appropriate indications are described in detail.
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Exceeding the need for care in general practitioner (GP) practices is a known problem that affects the work of approximately 16,000 specialists for internal medicine in the family practice context every day in Germany. In order to spare patients unnecessary treatment and measures, these must be critically questioned on a regular basis. Subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) and hyperuricemia (HU) are frequent laboratory constellations. ⋯ Furthermore, according to the studies of Li et al. and Badve et al. treatment of HU is only beneficial in the treatment of gout and nephrolithiasis and has no influence on the development of chronic kidney disease. The Canadian group of Bhatia demonstrated that the ECG for low-risk patients that is often part of health check-ups in Canada, usually results in more follow-up examinations without the groups with and without ECG differing with respect to major adverse cardiac events (MACE). Laboratory chemical analysis of N‑terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for managing the treatment of heart failure is also not more effective than traditional treatment methods according to Felker et al., therefore, it can be discarded. "Choosing wisely", "Less is more" and the "Klug entscheiden (Smart decisions)" recommendations by the German Society for Internal Medicine are initiatives that make the process of avoiding overprovision of care accessible for all practitioners in a short and concise form.
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Two commercial chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell products, axicabtagene-ciloleucel (Yescarta®) and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah®), are registered for the treatment of B cell neoplasia, for which an increased supply of CAR T cell products is required. ⋯ The significance of CAR T cells in adoptive immunotherapy is continuously growing. As individualized cell products, manufacturing requires highly efficient processes under the control of harmonized protocols and regulations so as to ensure the quality of the ATMP in view of increasing demand and to develop new fields in therapy.
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High-quality medical care including the concepts of "patient-centered medicine" and "precision medicine" imply medical awareness of measures that are "too much" and thus not appropriate for certain patients in a certain context. Physicians occupy a central role as stewards of limited social resources. Numerous influencing factors can cause a cascading into medical overuse. How to identify and avoid overuse? When is "less medicine" the better medicine for an individual patient?