[Practicability and Efficiency of E-health Applications in Patient-Reported Outcomes: State of and Need for Research].

Aims: E-health-based technologies also play an increasing role in the collection of patient- reported outcomes (ePRO). However, it remains unclear how feasible and powerful e-health applications are in the collection of PRO. Therefore, it should be examined to what extent the requirements for the use of technology-based PRO instruments has already been explored in order to allow its broad use in the "e-health world".

Communication skills of medical students during the OSCE: Gender-specific differences in a longitudinal trend study.

Background: Communication skills are essential in a patient-centred health service and therefore in medical teaching. Although significant differences in communication behaviour of male and female students are known, gender differences in the performance of students are still under-reported. The aim of this study was to analyse gender differences in communication skills of medical students in the context of an OSCE exam (OSCE = Objective Structured Clinical Examination).