Berlin – _fbeta GmbH and the German Society for Integrated Health Care eV (DGIV) have presented a joint position paper “Integrated Health Care 5.0″. The chairman of the DGIV, Prof. Dr. multi. Eckhard Nagel thanks the colleagues involved for this differentiated statement. The almost 40-page document is based on a multi-part discussion series that was held in 2022 in open dialogue with experts from the fields of self-government, care, IT industry and politics. The aim of this initiative was to design common targets for the further development of integrated care, to identify fields of action and to formulate important recommendations for decision-makers. The paper builds on various stages of development of integrated care (IV): from the first selective contractual beginnings to digital integration and concepts of sustainability and health, which will increasingly determine IV concepts in the future.
“The paper ‘Integrated Care 5.0’ makes an important contribution to patient-centred, cross-sectoral and interprofessional sustainable hybrid care,” said the Secretary General of the DGIV, Dr. Michael Meyer. This is also urgently needed, “because in view of the shortage of skilled workers and the changes in the medical offer, care that is separated into sectors and professional groups no longer corresponds to the needs of patients and professions”. The planned hospital reform and the proposed digitization laws could make an important contribution here by creating the basis for new and comprehensively integrated care structures. “In order to realize the vision of integrated care 5.0, a common vision and concrete, resolute legislation are required,” said the DGIV Secretary General.
Karsten Knöppler, Managing Director of _fbeta GmbH, adds: “Digitization opens up the possibilities of cross-sectoral care offers and treatment paths. At the same time, this also requires cross-sector care and structural planning. We can finally ensure care that is based primarily on the quality of results with comprehensively integrated approaches.” A prerequisite for this, however, is a fundamental change in perspective away from the care of illness via separate sectors and individual services towards integrated, sustainable health promotion from the patient’s point of view . The basis for this is a digital ecosystem that can be designed and orchestrated using platform solutions for prevention and care.
“DGIV and _fbeta see their position paper as a blueprint to overcome previously separate care and reimbursement structures on a digital basis and thus promote a fundamental system change in the healthcare system,” says Knöppler. “The long-awaited cross-sectoral, patient-integrated care and mapping of a seamless patient journey that we have long been calling for can now become a reality.”
The DGIV CEO is also building on this hope: “Both in the health policy environment of the capital and in the federal states, I wish the considerations of _fBeta and DGIV a committed reception,” concludes Prof. Nagel.
The position paper “Integrated Care 5.0” is available at: