[Telemedical Franconian Obesity Aftercare Therapy (Tele-FANT) Results of a Formative Evaluation].

Introduction: Following rehabilitation, patients are often unable to continue with the behavioral changes they had learned there in the long term. It is therefore important to offer aftercare services to improve self-management. Internet-based and telephone aftercare concepts in particular are low-cost and flexible in application, and offer an opportunity to significantly increase the use of aftercare measures.

[The Blaufeuer measure for employees with mental stress and simultaneous workplace problems-Is the target group being reached?].

Background: Employees with mental burden and simultaneous workplace problems have an increased risk of chronification and disability pension. To support this group of people, the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund) developed the Systemic Integration Management for People with Mental Impairments (SEMpsych) project as part of the rehapro federal program. The Blaufeuer counselling service was implemented in three model regions (Berlin, Cologne, and Nuremberg).

Development and initial evaluation of the usefulness of a question prompt list to promote patients' level of information about work-related medical rehabilitation: a pilot study.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to develop a question prompt list (QPL) to support patients undergoing work-related medical rehabilitation in obtaining relevant information and to explore how patients and physicians rate the QPL regarding its usefulness, practicability, and perceived (additional) effort.

Methods: An initial item pool was assessed by rehabilitation patients ( = 3) in cognitive interviews, rated by physicians and other health professionals ( = 11), and then further modified. The final QPL version (16 items) was used by patients ( = 36) in medical admission interviews in an inpatient medical rehabilitation facility and then evaluated.

[Development of Practice Guidelines for Social Work in Medical Rehabilitation].

Purpose: Social work services are a major part of the treatment spectrum in medical rehabilitation. Given new demands and differences in the practical implementation of social work interventions, there is a need for good clinical practice standards of care. Therefore, practice guidelines (PG) for social work in medical rehabilitation facilities were developed.

Cardiac Rehabilitation in German Speaking Countries of Europe-Evidence-Based Guidelines from Germany, Austria and Switzerland LLKardReha-DACH-Part 2.

Background: Scientific guidelines have been developed to update and harmonize exercise based cardiac rehabilitation (ebCR) in German speaking countries. Key recommendations for ebCR indications have recently been published in part 1 of this journal. The present part 2 updates the evidence with respect to contents and delivery of ebCR in clinical practice, focusing on exercise training (ET), psychological interventions (PI), patient education (PE).

Which teaching method is more effective in a communication course - role-playing versus simulated patients, taught by tutors or faculty staff? A randomized trial.

Communicative skills can be taught and trained as part of medical training. In these courses, lecturers or tutors serve as instructors, and students perform interviews with simulated patients (SP) or role-play (RP) with fellow students. The present study was conducted to identify the combination of applied teaching methods that is most effective.

Endurance and avoidance response patterns in pain patients: Application of action control theory in pain research.

Background: Identifying pain-related response patterns and understanding functional mechanisms of symptom formation and recovery are important for improving treatment.

Objectives: We aimed to replicate pain-related avoidance-endurance response patterns associated with the Fear-Avoidance Model, and its extension, the Avoidance-Endurance Model, and examined their differences in secondary measures of stress, action control (i.e.

[Implementation and Formative Evaluation of a Health Navigator Service for Health and Wellness Guests in a Health Resort].

Objectives: To develop, implement and evaluate a health navigator service (HNS) for visitors and guests in a German health resort.

Method: Information on local health services providers was collected and included in a database. A complementary national and international literature search was conducted.

Beyond Oncology: Question Prompt Lists in Healthcare-A Scoping Review Protocol.

Question prompt lists (QPL) are an instrument to promote patient participation in medical encounters by providing a set of questions patients can use during consultations. QPL have predominantly been examined in oncology. Less is known about their use in other contexts.

An instrument for quality assurance in work capacity evaluation: development, evaluation, and inter-rater reliability.

Background: Employees insured in pension insurance, who are incapable of working due to ill health, are entitled to a disability pension. To assess whether an individual meets the medical requirements to be considered as disabled, a work capacity evaluation is conducted. However, there are no official guidelines on how to perform an external quality assurance for this evaluation process.

[Telephone-Based Psychological Counselling of Accident Victims: Initial Evaluation of a Pilot Project of the German Statutory Accident Insurance in the Healthcare and Welfare Services].

A telephone-based psychological counselling service was implemented and evaluated in four regional offices of the German statutory accident insurance in healthcare and welfare services (BGW). Insurance employees/caseworkers, psychotherapists, and insured persons were asked to rate the counselling service in terms of their experiences and satisfaction. 15.

Development and evaluation of a standardized peer-training in the context of peer review for quality assurance in work capacity evaluation.

Background: The German quality assurance programme for evaluating work capacity is based on peer review that evaluates the quality of medical experts' reports. Low reliability is thought to be due to systematic differences among peers. For this purpose, we developed a curriculum for a standardized peer-training (SPT).

[The Update of the Rehabilitation Therapy Standards of the German Pension Assurance].

Objectives: To report on the process of updating the German Pension Insurers' rehabilitation therapy standards (RTS) from 2013 to 2015.

Methods: Four methodical approaches were taken to gather evidence: a) systematic literature searches, b) the formation of expert groups, expert workshops, and online discussion forums to bring together the experiences from clinicians and patients, c) an analysis of the latest KTL data to understand the extent to which the RTS are currently being fulfilled, and d) conceptual consideration of the significance of current developments in rehabilitation in light of the RTS revision.

Results: There are now updated versions of all 9 RTS.

[Compatibility of Work and Family Life of Employees in the Healthcare Sector: An Issue in Health Services Research].

Background: Healthcare professionals are confronted with specific work-related demands that influence work-family relations and might indirectly affect the quality of healthcare. This paper seeks to provide an overview of the current state of research on this topic of relevance to health services research. The overview may serve as a starting point for modifying structures in the healthcare system (especially in rural regions) with the aim of improving work-family compatibility.

Short Questionnaire for Workplace Analysis (KFZA): factorial validation in physicians and nurses working in hospital settings.

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in psychosocial workplace risk assessments in Germany. One of the questionnaires commonly employed for this purpose is the Short Questionnaire for Workplace Analysis (KFZA). Originally, the KFZA was developed and validated for office workers.

Addressing Work-Related Issues in Medical Rehabilitation: Revision of an Online Information Tool for Healthcare Professionals.

Background. Medical rehabilitation increasingly considers occupational issues as determinants of health and work ability. Information on work-related rehabilitation concepts should therefore be made available to healthcare professionals.

[Development and Evaluation of a Teacher Training for the Early Recognition of Depressive Symptoms in Students].

Background And Study Objectives: Although teachers play an important role regarding early recognition of psychological problems in students, they have been largely neglected in research as a target group for interventions. In this study, a training for teachers was developed that aimed at improving knowledge and self-efficacy/subjective competencies with regard to the early recognition of mental distress in secondary school students with a specific focus on depressive symptoms (by means of providing information, interviewing techniques, and important contact persons).

Methods: A training module comprising 4 h directed at teachers in secondary schools was developed and tested in 6 schools in a pre-post evaluation design.

Long-term effects of interprofessional biopsychosocial rehabilitation for adults with chronic non-specific low back pain: a multicentre, quasi-experimental study.

Background: Improvement of the long-term effectiveness of multidisciplinary ortho-paedic rehabilitation (MOR) in the management of chronic non-specific low back pain (CLBP) remains a central issue for health care in Germany. We developed an interprofessional and interdisciplinary, biopsychosocial rehabilitation concept named "PASTOR" to promote self-management in adults with CLBP and compared its effectiveness with the current model of MOR.

Methods: A multicentre quasi-experimental study with three measurement time points was implemented.

Paediatric rehabilitation treatment standards: a method for quality assurance in Germany.

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE GERMAN PENSION INSURANCE HAS IMPLEMENTED A NEW METHOD OF QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR INPATIENT REHABILITATION OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS DIAGNOSED WITH BRONCHIAL ASTHMA, OBESITY, OR ATOPIC DERMATITIS: the so-called rehabilitation treatment standards (RTS). They aim at promoting a comprehensive and evidence-based care in rehabilitation. Furthermore, they are intended to make the therapeutic processes in medical rehabilitation as well as potential deficits more transparent.

Benefits and challenges in practice-oriented psychotherapy research in Germany: the TK and the QS-PSY-BAY projects of quality assurance in outpatient psychotherapy.

Objective: Two patient-focused long-term research projects performed in the German outpatient psychotherapy system are focused on in this article. The TK (Techniker Krankenkasse) project is the first study to evaluate a quality assurance and feedback system with regard to its practical feasibility in German routine care. The other study ("Quality Assurance in Outpatient Psychotherapy in Bavaria"; QS-PSY-BAY) was designed to test a new approach for quality assurance in outpatient psychotherapy using electronic documentation of patient characteristics and outcome parameters.

[Use of standardized patients in the psycho-social subjects of medical studies--applicability of standardized patients in postgraduate psychotherapy training curricula?].

Due to the successful use of standardized patients (SPs) in medical studies, possible fields of application for SPs in postgraduate psychotherapy training were examined on the basis of a systematic literature research (ranging from 1982 to 2011) on the use of SPs in the fields of psychotherapy, medical psychology, psychosomatic medicine, and psychiatry. The results show that SPs are used predominantly for teaching communication and counseling techniques, history taking, and assessment of psychopathology and are commonly used to portray patients with affective disorders, neurotic, stress and somatoform disorders and schizophrenia, as well as schizotypal and delusional disorders. The use of SPs is generally rated positively with regard to subjective learning effects, satisfaction, and authenticity.

[Results of the pilot project of the Techniker-Krankenkasse "quality monitoring in outpatient psychotherapy" - a commentary by the project's scientific advisory board].

In order to objectify the discussion about a project of the TK, a German health insurance company, which aimed to analyse the effects of a specific quality monitoring system on psychotherapy outcomes, the scientific advisory board summarized the main results of the study. The main results were cited from the final report which confirms the confirmatory character of the study design that aimed to test the hypothesis of the superiority of the quality monitoring system compared to the system of peer review-based approval of therapies. The quality monitoring system represents a complex intervention which is composed of several single intervention elements.

[The project of the Techniker-Krankenkasse: some comments on the results by the project's scientific advisory board].

The Project of the Techniker Krankenkasse compared 2 systems of quality assurance in outpatient psychotherapy, the established peer review system based on qualitative individual case reports and a new model based on psychometric assessment and feed-back systems. In this publication the members of the project advisory board comment on the results and limitations of the study. 400 psychotherapists in private practice participated in a cluster-randomized comparison study, 200 were allocated to the intervention group, and 200 to the control group.

Current state of vocationally oriented medical rehabilitation--a German perspective.

The aim of this paper is to outline a current trend in inpatient medical rehabilitation in Germany, i.e. vocationally oriented medical rehabilitation (VOMR).

Intermediate and long-term effects of a standardized back school for inpatient orthopedic rehabilitation on illness knowledge and self-management behaviors: a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: A back school is a mandatory part of the multimodal rehabilitation program for patients with chronic low back pain in Germany. However, no standardized and evaluated back school program has been available for routine use. In this study, we report the evaluation of a new back school that was developed based on theories of health behavior, treatment evidence, practice guidelines, and quality criteria for patient education.