[Educational material as part of risk minimisation].

Educational material, for example in the form of information booklets, checklists, patient alert cards, therapeutic passports, emergency ID cards, or videos, is an important aid for the safe use of a medicinal product or drug and supplements the summary of product characteristics and package information. It is ordered, tested and approved by the competent national authorities, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), and made available by the respective marketing authorization holder and published on the websites of BfArM and PEI. Educational material is part of the marketing authorization of a medicinal product.

[General practitioners' guideline for palliative care. A survey of guideline acceptance in quality circles of primary medical care].

Purpose: The implementation of the general practitioners' (GPs) guideline for palliative care released in 2007 with consent of the developing group was accompanied by an anonymous and voluntary survey designed to assess acceptance and feasibility of the recommendations. 60 quality circles of the GP-based care program in Hesse which are run by the PMV research group were used for guideline implementation.

Material And Methods: The quality of the palliative care quality circle meeting itself was checked with a standardized questionnaire (feedback, n = 473 of 515 participating GPs).

['To read' does not imply 'to act upon': indicators of the acceptance of general practice guidelines. Results of a survey among quality circles of general practitioner centred care (Hausarztzentrierte Versorgung; HZV)].

Context: Successful guideline implementation requires that the authors get feedback from target groups on the general acceptance of a guideline and the barriers to its implementation. The Guideline Group of General Practitioners (GPs) in Hesse continually surveyed participants of quality circles on pharmacotherapy who discussed these GP specific guidelines together with an analysis of their prescription behaviour.

Material And Methods: Written survey of six general practice guidelines conducted among the members of quality circles in Hesse during 2006 and 2007.

[The German program for disease management guidelines. Background, methods, and development process].

The Program for National Disease Management Guidelines (German DM-CPG Program) was established in 2002 by the German Medical Association (umbrella organization of the German Chambers of Physicians) and joined by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF; umbrella organization of more than 150 professional societies) and by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (NASHIP) in 2003. The program provides a conceptual basis for disease management, focusing on high-priority health-care topics and aiming at the implementation of best practice recommendations for prevention, acute care, rehabilitation and chronic care. It is organized by the German Agency for Quality in Medicine, a founding member of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N).

[Clinical practice guidelines in Germany, 1994 to 2004. From guideline methodology towards guideline implementation].

The role of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) as a tool for continuous medical education (CME), and quality management in health care is now widely accepted in Germany. Since the 90ies, the physicians' professional associations as well as health care authorities and parliament have been introducing several incentives and regulations in order to promote the use of evidence based CPG. In the past German CPG agencies have been focussing their work on developing and optimising methodological CPG standards.