From the Federal Cabinet meeting, in which the action plan to improve drug therapy safety was discussed, among other things, Health Minister Hermann Gröhe went straight to the coach to the first station of this year’s health information trip. At the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, he met Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier, Director of Regulation in Infection Biology, together with the Berlin Senator for Health, Mario Czaja. Together with researchers, she developed the so-called gene scissors. Gene scissors open up new possibilities for basic research, but also for use in the prevention and healing of human diseases. Together with Professor Peter Dabrock, Chairman of the German Ethics Council, the great responsibility of research in dealing with these possibilities and the need for a broad public debate was discussed. With its annual conference in June 2016, the Ethics Council contributed to this important discussion between science and society.
Dementia and patient letter
On the trip to Leipzig, the managing director of the German Alzheimer Society provided information on how to properly deal with people suffering from dementia in everyday life. At the Innovation Center for Computer-Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) in Leipzig, Health Minister Hermann Gröhe viewed a model of the operating room of the future: By networking all devices and the technology in the room, they can communicate with each other and make the doctors’ work easier. The first day of the health information trip ended with the project “What do I have?” from Dresden. Founder Ansgar Jonietz provided information on how he and his team translate findings from doctor’s letters into a language that everyone can understand. With the support of the Federal Ministry of Health, there will be a project to test a corresponding patient letter.
On Thursday morning we took the train to Frankfurt. During the drive, Dr. Christian Gravert, head of health management at Deutsche Bahn, reports on health management in the company and explains emergency care for passengers. Gröhe then attended the kindergarten of the Evangelical Lutheran St. Nicolai congregation. Here, star chef Stefan Marquard cooked with the children and taught them interesting facts about healthy eating (recipes: orange bulgur with herbed salmon and two types of vegetable sauce and pink egg in a courgette nest on corn polenta).
In the initial reception center for refugees, the Michaelis Dorf, the Minister of Health then found out about the STEP-BY-STEP project, which enables traumatized women and children who have fled to get help at an early stage.
Basic research in Heidelberg
In Heidelberg, a visit to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) was on the agenda. The research institute is one of the world‘s best-known institutions in the field of basic research in molecular biology. The following day, Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe discussed projects in the field of personalized medicine at SAP. The last stop on the health information trip was Frankfurt Airport. Here, the Minister of Health informed himself about emergency planning in the fight against health risks.