Das Gesundheitswesen
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Das Gesundheitswesen · Jul 1993
[The medical service of compulsory health insurance--quo vadis? The law, responsibility and interests of those involved].
In contrast to all predictions and expectations the Medical Advisor of Health Insurance (MDK) still has to cope with an enormous quantity of medical examinations and reports. As long as the capacities of the MDK are completely absorbed by this task it cannot fulfill its legal commission as a medical consultant of the health insurance in an economical and highly qualified way. The present economical crisis of the health insurance can also be regarded as a challenge to overcome this situation.
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Das Gesundheitswesen · Jul 1993
[Development, organization and evaluation of a public health surveillance system].
Health professionals who set health policies and manage prevention and disease control programs are committed to the goals of reducing disease and injury related morbidity and mortality and improving the public's health and quality of life. To determine what health policies are needed and what specific actions should be taken and which epidemiological investigations should be carried out in order to identify lack of coverage of public health programs, decision makers need continuous information in order to tackle upcoming technical questions and to identify the most serious existing and emerging health problems of today's society. Both, political decision makers and health professionals have to ask themselves how those health problems can be prevented and which are the most cost-effective prevention and control strategies for this purpose. ⋯ Only a sophisticated public health surveillance system can give answers to all those issues. Surveillance is defined as the ongoing systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of date on specific health events for use in planning, implementation and evaluation of public health programs. Timely dissemination of these data to persons who need to know is essential to effective prevention and control.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)