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One of the main challenges for modern surgery is the effective use of the many available imaging modalities and diagnostic methods. Augmented reality systems can be used in the future to blend patient and planning information into the view of surgeons, which can improve the efficiency and safety of interventions.In this article we present five visualization methods to integrate augmented reality displays into medical procedures and the advantages and disadvantages are explained.Based on an extensive literature review the various existing approaches for integration of augmented reality displays into medical procedures are divided into five categories and the most important research results for each approach are presented.A large number of mixed and augmented reality solutions for medical interventions have been developed as research prototypes; however, only very few systems have been tested on patients.In order to integrate mixed and augmented reality displays into medical practice, highly specialized solutions need to be developed. Such systems must comply with the requirements with respect to accuracy, fidelity, ergonomics and seamless integration into the surgical workflow.

Legitimately categorizing software in the healthcare sector is complex. According to European medical devices law, software can be considered a medical device. The decisive factor is whether the software is used for directly controlling a therapeutic or diagnostic medical device or as stand-alone software that achieves specific medical purposes, as they are described in the legal definition of a medical device. A contribution of the software to diagnosis or therapy can be sufficient for the categorization; it does not have to provide the complete diagnosis or the complete therapy itself.This principle will continue to be the same with the new Regulation on Medical Devices (EU) 2017/745, even though the classification rules have been more closely and more specifically tailored to software and more stringent requirements for essential safety and performance requirements have to be met.

During patient education, information exchange plays a critical role both for patient compliance during medical or rehabilitative treatment and for obtaining an informed consent for an operative procedure.In this article the augmented reality system "Magic Mirror" as an additive tool during patient education, rehabilitation as well as anatomical education is highlighted.The Magic Mirror system allows the user of the system to inspect both a detailed model of the 3‑dimensional anatomy of the human body and volumetric slice images in a virtual mirror environment.First preliminary results from the areas of rehabilitation and learning anatomy indicate the broad potential of the Magic Mirror. Similarly, the system also provides interesting advantages for patient education situations in comparison to traditional methods of information exchange.Novel technologies, such as augmented reality are a door opener for many innovations in medicine. In the future, patient-specific systems, such as the Magic Mirror will be used increasingly more in areas such as patient education and rehabilitation. In order to maximize the benefits of such systems, further evaluation studies are necessary to find out about the best use cases and to start an iterative optimization process of these systems.

Smartphones and tablets with their nearly unlimited number of different applications have become an integral part of everyday life. Thus, mobile devices and applications have also found their way into the healthcare sector.For developers, manufacturers, or users as well, it is often difficult to decide whether a mobile health application is a medical device.In this context, it is extremely important for manufacturers to decide at an early stage of the development whether the product is to be introduced into the market as a medical device and is therefore subject to the legislation on medical devices.This article first presents the regulatory framework and subsequently introduces the reader to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices' (BfArM) view of the criteria for differentiating between apps as non-medical products and apps as medical apps as well as the classification thereof. Various examples are presented to demonstrate how these criteria are applied practically and options that support developers and manufacturers in their decision making are shown. The article concludes with a reference to current developments and offers a perspective on the new European medical device regulations MDR/IVDR (Medical Device Regulation/In-Vitro Diagnostic Regulation) as well as on future challenges regarding medical apps.

Introduction: One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician’s role as scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge. Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive overview of research groups and their respective projects. Description of the project: We developed the online platform Doktabörse as an online marketplace for doctoral research projects. The platform enables authorized researchers to create working groups and upload, deactivate and change research projects within their institute. For interested students, a front end with integrated search function displays these projects in a structured and well-arranged way. In parallel, the Doktabörse provides for a comprehensive overview of research at the medical faculty. We evaluated Researchers‘ and students‘ use of the platform. Results: 96,6% of students participating in the evaluation (n=400) were in favor of a centralized research platform at the medical faculty. The platform grew at a steady pace and included 120 research groups in June 2016. The students appreciated the structure and design of the Doktabörse. Two thirds of all uploaded projects matched successfully with doctoral students via the platform and over 94% of researchers stated that they did not need technical assistance with uploading projects and handling the platform. Discussion: The Doktabörse represents an innovative and well accepted platform for doctoral research projects. The platform is perceived positively by researchers and students alike. However, students criticized limited extent and timeliness of offered projects. In addition, the platform serves as databank of research at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich. The future potential of this platform is to provide for an integrated management solution of doctoral thesis projects, possibly beyond the medical field and faculty., Einleitung: Die Promotion ist ein wichtiger nicht curriculärer Bestandteil des Medizinstudiums und vermittelt oftmals relevante Kompetenzen für die Rolle des Arztes als Wissenschaftler. Trotzdem stellt die Wahl einer passenden Promotionsarbeit eine große Herausforderung dar. Gründe hierfür sind unter Anderem fehlenden Strukturen zur übersichtlichen Darstellung der Arbeitsgruppen und der Promotionsprojekte. Projektbeschreibung: Wir konzipierten die Online-Promotionsplattform Doktabörse als Instrument zur Vermittlung von Doktorarbeiten. Diese ermöglicht es zugangsberechtigten Forschenden innerhalb einer Institutsstruktur Arbeitsgruppen anzulegen und Promotionsarbeiten auszuschreiben, anzupassen und zu deaktivieren. In einem Frontend mit integrierter Suchfunktion werden diese Angebote dann strukturiert und übersichtlich für interessierte Studierende dargestellt. Gleichzeitig bietet die Doktabörse einen Überblick über die Forschungslandschaft der Medizinischen Fakultät. Die Nutzung durch Forschende und Studierende wurde evaluiert. Ergebnisse: 96,6% der an einer Umfrage (n=400) teilnehmenden Studierenden sprachen sich für eine zentrale Promotionsplattform an der Fakultät aus. Die Plattform verzeichnet ein stetes Wachstum und umfasst 120 Arbeitsgruppen (Stand Juni 2016). Die Studierenden lobten die Struktur, die visuelle Gestaltung und die Übersichtlichkeit der Doktabörse. Zwei Drittel der Inserate führten zu einer erfolgreichen Vermittlung von Doktoranden und über 94% der teilnehmenden Forschenden gaben an, keine technische Hilfe bei der Ausschreibung von Promotionen zu benötigen. Diskussion: Die Doktabörse stellt ein innovatives und gut akzeptiertes Instrument zur Vermittlung von Doktorarbeiten dar. Sie wird von Forschenden wie auch Studierenden positiv aufgenommen, allerdings bemängeln Letztere den zu geringen Angebotsumfang und die Aktualität. Zusätzlich dient sie als Datenbank der forschenden Institute an der Medizinischen Fakultät der LMU München. Das Potential dieser Plattform ist es, fach- und fakultätsübergreifend eine integrative Lösung für das Management von Promotionsvorhaben zu bieten., GMS Journal for Medical Education; 34(3):Doc30

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is developing a web-based EU portal with a database "at Union level as a single entry point for the submission of data and information relating to clinical trials in accordance with" the new EU regulation No. 536/2014. The specifications are mostly published, but some documents are still missing. Because the project is integrated and has dependencies on other projects, this could result in other specification upgrades. The IT solution is under ongoing development until project completion in quarter III of 2019. The EU Portal and the database will be audited. If the audit is successful, the new regulation will come into force in October 2018. The use of the EU Portal will then be mandatory with some transition rules. The software development of the portal is restricted to the regulation and the derived requirements. It is not possible to implement any national requirements. We describe in this paper the current key functionalities of the portal and try to derive requirements for a national IT system.On 16.06.2017 the EMA Management Board announced that the development of the new portal has been delayed and it is foreseen that the new regulation can come into effect in 2019 at the earliest. The press release can be found here: http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/news_and_events/news/2017/06/news_detail_002764.jsp%26mid=WC0b01ac058004d5c1 (accessed: 12.07.2017).

Optimal positioning of bone-anchored implants in the treatment of patients with orbital prosthesis is challenging. The definition of implant axis as well as the positioning of the implants is important to prevent failures in prosthetic rehabilitation in these patients. We performed virtual planning of enossal implants at a base of a standard fan beam CT scan using the software CoDiagnostiX™ (DentalWings, Montréal, Canada). By 3D-printing a surgical guide for drilling and implant insertion was manufactured (Med-610™, Stratasys, Rehovot, Israel). An orbital exenteration was performed in a patient after shrinkage of the eyelids 20 years after enucleation and radiation of the orbit due to rhabdomyosarcoma. 4 Vistafix-3 implants (Cochlear™, Cochlea, Centennial, USA) were primarily inserted after resection with the help of the 3D-surgical guide. Prosthetic rehabilitation could be achieved as preplanned to a predictable result. The individual prosthesis of the orbit showed good functional and esthetic outcome. The virtual 3D-planning of endosseous implants for prosthetic orbital and periorbital reconstruction is easy to use and facilitates optimal placement of implants especially in posttherapeutically altered anatomic situations.Die optimale epithetische Versorgung von Patienten mit orbitalen Defekten stellt eine Herausforderung dar. Sowohl das Wählen des Implantations-Winkels als auch die Positionierung der Einzelimplantate kann bei inkorrekter Ausführung bei der Abformung, der Herstellung und dem Tragen der Epithese zu Problemen führen. Wir führten eine virtuelle Planung der enossalen Implantation an einem 3D-CT-Datensatz mit der Software CoDiagnostiX ™(DentalWings, Montréal, Kanada) durch. Mittels 3D-Druckverfahren erfolgte die Herstellung einer plastischen-Insertionsschablone (Med-610™, Stratasys, Rehovot, Israel). Bei einem 41-jährigen Patienten wurde bei Schrumpfung des Lidapparates nach Enukleation und Radiatio der linken Orbita vor 20 Jahren, nun eine Exenteratio orbitae durchgeführt. Im Anschluss erfolgte das Einbringen von 4 Vistafix-3 Implantaten (Cochlear™ Centennial, USA) mittels 3D-Schablone. Die Abformung und Epithesenanpassung im Verlauf war problemlos möglich und ergab eine sehr gute funktionelle und ästhetische Rehabilitation des Patienten. Die virtuelle 3D-Planung der knochenverankerten epithetischen Versorgung von Orbitadefekten ist gut durchführbar und führt zu einer optimalen Platzierung der Implantate insbesondere bei posttherapeutisch veränderten anatomischen Verhältnissen der Orbitaregion.

Morbid obesity is a medical and economic challenge. Patients who have the indications for bariatric surgery face a long way from the first visit until surgery and a high utilization of resources is required.The present study aimed to evaluate labor costs and labor time required to supervise obese patients from their first visit until preparation of a bariatric report to ask for cost acceptance of bariatric surgery from their health insurance. In addition, the reasons for not receiving bariatric surgery after receiving cost acceptance from the health insurance were evaluated.Patients who had indications for bariatric surgery according to the S3 guidelines between 2012 and 2013, were evaluated regarding labor costs and labor time of the process from the first visit until receiving cost acceptance from their health insurance. Furthermore, body mass index (BMI), age, sex, Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS) stage and comorbidities were evaluated. Patients who had not received surgery up to December 2015 were contacted via telephone to ask for the reasons.In the present study 176 patients were evaluated (110 females, 62.5%). Until preparation of a bariatric report the patients required an average of 2.7 combined visits in the department of surgery with the department of nutrition, 1.7 visits in the department of psychosomatic medicine, 1.5 separate visits in the department of nutrition and 1.4 visits in the department of internal medicine. Average labor costs from the first visit until the bariatric survey were 404.90 ± 117.00 euros and 130 out of 176 bariatric reports were accepted by the health insurance (73.8%). For another 40 patients a second bariatric survey was made and 20 of these (50%) were accepted, which results in a total acceptance rate of 85.2% (150 out of 176). After a mean follow-up of 2.8 ± 1.1 years only 93 out of 176 patients had received bariatric surgery (53.8%). Of these 16 had received acceptance of surgery by their health insurance only after a second bariatric survey.A large amount of labor and financial resources are required for treatment of obese patients from first presentation up to bariatric surgery. The cost-benefit calculation of an obesity center needs to include that approximately one half of the patients do not receive surgery within more than 2.5 years.

Tagungsband der Tagung "28. Forum Bauinformatik". Mit Beiträgen der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft im Bereich Bauinformatik.

Male urinary incontinence is an underestimated and frequently not broached issue. The urinary incontinence is divided into stress-, urge incontinence and hybrid forms as well as overflow incontinence. The fact that there are increasingly more men over 60 means that the prevalence of the urinary incontinence is up to 40%, and urinary incontinence will increasingly gain importance in daily routine practice. Many investigations and therapies can be realized by the general practitioner. Already simple therapy approaches can lead to a considerable clinical improvement of male urinary incontinence. If the initial therapy fails or pathological results (i. e. microhaematuria, recurrent urinary tract infections, raised residual urine and so on) are found, the patient should be referred to a urologist.

Dementia affects more and more people, affects their relatives and results in increasing costs, which is why Switzerland chose to put out a dementia awareness campaign which aims to increase early diagnosis rates for dementia. Thanks to early diagnosis, the frequency of hospitalisations is reduced and transfers to nursing homes are delayed. When screening tests end up being normal by patients with subjective memory disorder, early diagnosis can be difficult. The use of smell identification tests or other clinical signs could help the general practitioner to decide, which patients he has to refer for further investigations. The era of functional brain imaging and biomarkers has not yet come into being. For patients with suspected memory disorder and normal screening tests, the dialogue with the general practitioner is central for a competent and efficient follow-up of the patient.

Pain after surgery continues to be undermanaged. Studies and initiatives aiming to improve the management of postoperative pain are growing; however, most studies focus on inpatients and pain on the first day after surgery. The management of postoperative pain after ambulatory surgery and for several days thereafter is not yet a major focus. One reason is the low return rate of the questionnaires in the ambulatory sector. This article reports the development and feasibility of a web-based electronic data collection system to examine pain and pain-related outcome on predefined postoperative days after ambulatory surgery.In this prospective pilot study 127 patients scheduled for ambulatory surgery were asked to participate in a survey to evaluate aspects related to pain after ambulatory surgery. The data survey was divided in (1) a preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative part and (2) a postoperative internet-based electronic questionnaire which was sent via e-mail link to the patient on days 1, 3 and 7 after surgery. A software was developed using a PHP-based platform to send e-mails and retrieve the data after web-based entries via a local browser. Feasibility, internet-based hitches and compliance were assessed by an additional telephone call after day 7.A total of 100 patients (50 female) between 18 and 71 years (mean 39.1 ± 12.7 years) were included in the pilot study. Return rates of the electronic questionnaires were 86% (days 3 and 7) and 91% (day 1 after surgery). All 3 electronic questionnaires were answered by 82% of patients. Aspects influencing the return rate of questionnaires were work status but not age, gender, education level and preoperative pain. Telephone interviews were performed with 81 patients and revealed high operability of the internet-based survey without any major problems.The user-friendly feasibility and operability of this internet-based electronic data survey system explain the high compliance and return rate of electronic questionnaires by patients at home after ambulatory surgery. This survey tool therefore provides unique opportunities to evaluate and improve postoperative pain management after ambulatory surgery.

The purpose of this project was to develop a user-centered web-portal for empowerment in mental disorders.The development of the portal included mixed-methods techniques for needs assessment to identify user-relevant content. Exposure and use of the portal was investigated as part of a process evaluation.psychenet.de informs about mental disorders and treatment option. Results of the process evaluation showed a highly accessed website, the portal was assessed as "good" or "very good" by 73 % of the respondents.Using psychenet.de attempts to raise awareness, to inform about mental disorders, and to engage patients in the course of their treatment.

In day to day medical care, patients, nursing staff and doctors currently face a bewildering and rapidly growing number of health-related apps running on various "smart" devices and there are also uncountable possibilities for the use of such technology. Concerning regulation, a risk-based approach is applied for development and use (including safety and security considerations) of medical and health-related apps. Considering safety-related issues as well as organizational matters, this is a sensible approach but requires honest self-assessment as well as a high degree of responsibility, networking and good quality management by all those involved. This cannot be taken for granted. Apart from regulatory aspects it is important to not only consider what is reasonable, helpful or profitable. Quality aspects, safety matters, data protection and privacy as well as liability issues must also be considered but are often not adequately respected. If software quality is compromised, this endangers patient safety as well as data protection, privacy and data integrity. This can for example result in unwanted advertising or unauthorized access to the stored data by third parties; therefore, local, regional and international regulatory measures need to be applied in order to ensure safe use of medical apps in all possible areas, including the operating room (OR) with its highly specialized demands. Lawmakers need to include impulses from all stakeholders in their considerations and this should include input from existing private initiatives that already deal with the use and evaluation of apps in a medical context. Of course, this process needs to respect pre-existing national, European as well as international (harmonized) standards.

Additional internet-based learning tools (e-learning) are successfully used in the curricula of many disciplines and are highly accepted among students. However, in orthopedics and traumatology e-learning is underrepresented and scientific papers are rare. The aim of the present pilot study was to evaluate the acceptance of the e-learning module network for students in traumatology and orthopedics (NESTOR) among users and non-users and to analyze the effect of this additional learning tool on knowledge acquisition.A total of 544 students were asked to complete evaluation questionnaires at the end of two semesters using different ones for NESTOR users and non-users. The gain of knowledge was analyzed by two written knowledge tests (pre-post test, 20 multiple choice questions) at the beginning and end of the semester comparing these two groups.A total of 191 students took part in the evaluation and 152 completed both written tests. The NESTOR users showed a high acceptance of the e-learning system and non-users considered e-learning beneficial as well. Reasons given for not using NESTOR were lack of time, lack of information about the existence of NESTOR and a lack of interest in this discipline and e-learning in general. Both groups significantly increased their level of knowledge during the course of the semester (p 0.01), whereas users scored significantly higher in the post-test (p 0.05).The presented data support the high acceptance among users and the benefit of the e-learning project NESTOR in teaching students in orthopedics and traumatology. Based on experience and these results the permanent implementation of an additional e-learning module in the curriculum can be recommended for other faculties. In this process the critical comments of the non-users determined in the present study should be addressed.

Searching for relevant publications is becoming more difficult with the increasing number of scientific articles. Text mining as a specific form of computer-based data analysis may be helpful in this context. Highlighting relations between authors and finding relevant publications concerning a specific subject using text analysis programs are illustrated graphically by 2 performed examples.

Technological innovations have initiated a fundamental change in invasive therapeutic approaches which has led to a welcome reduction of surgical trauma but was also associated with a declining role of conventional surgery. Active utilization of future technological developments is decisive to promote new therapeutic strategies and to avoid a further loss of importance of surgery. This includes individualized preoperative therapy planning as well as intraoperative diagnostic work-up and navigation and the use of new functional intelligent implants. The working environment "surgical operating room" has to be refurbished into an integrated cooperating functional system. The impact of new technological developments is particularly obvious in minimally invasive surgery. There is a clear tendency towards further reduction in trauma in the surgical access. The incision will become smaller and the number of ports will be further reduced, with the aim of ultimately having just one port (monoport surgery) or even via natural access routes (scarless surgery). Among others, improved visualization including, e.g. autostereoscopy, digital image processing and intelligent support systems, which are able to assist in a cooperative way, will enable these goals to be achieved.

In times of manifold digital learning resources open to public access lectures in surgery still play a major role in medical training. It is a platform for discussion with the medical teacher and provides the opportunity to create a vivid learning experience by showing live operations via video streaming and inviting patients to the lectures. When then change in paradigm is achieved from pure knowledge transfer to cross-linkage of knowledge, the surgical lecture will be a major future keystone in medical education, where the lecturer can reach the students with his own passion for the field of expertise and get them interested in surgery.

The aim of diurnal pressure profiles is clarification of therapy safety and the diagnosis of glaucoma. The evaluation of intraocular pressure curves is part of the running assessment. In order to support this evaluation software has been developed which, in addition to the digital presentation of intraocular pressure curves corrected for corneal thickness also allows immediate statistical assessment. After specifying a target pressure it also allows deduction of possible therapy recommendations based on the resulting intraocular pressure values, the cup/disc ratio and the number of antiglaucoma agents given. In this study two collectives were investigated: in the first collective, in addition to the previously determined diagnoses, the intraocular pressure, number and time of measurements, predetermined target pressure, cup/disc ratio and corneal thickness-dependent correction values were evaluated. After completing a scoring system with respect to agreement of the clinical therapy suggestions with those suggestions calculated by the software, the second collective was compared after termination of the diurnal pressure profile. Concordance was found in 73 out of 88 eyes. The digital collation system for profile measurement was found to be very well suited for graphical and clinical documentation of diurnal pressure profile curves. Therapy decisions can be deduced from the available data and supported by the software.

Patients after syncopy arrive frequently in an emergency unit. Two scoring systems have been validated for clinical decision making, use of diagnostic methods and need for hospitalisation. Goal of the study was quality control of ambulatory treatment of syncope patients in a University Emergency Department. 200 consecutive patients with syncope were documented, 109 of whom followed by phone-call during two years. The decision for hospitalisation or ambulatory treatment was up to the treating doctor. Age-distribution was biphasic: female sex mainly below the age 25, from 55 to 75 predominantly men. Etiology of syncope remained unclear for the majority of cases, a few neurologic (n=3) or cardiac (n=5) reasons were found with treatment consequences.

During the influenza pandemic 2009/2010 and the outbreak of entero-haemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC)/hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) 2011, the statutory reporting system in Germany was complemented by additional event-related surveillance systems in hospitals. The Pandemic Influenza Hospital Surveillance (PIKS) and the Surveillance of Bloody Diarrhea (SBD) were evaluated, to make experiences available for similar future situations.The description and evaluation of our surveillance systems is based on the "Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems" published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001.PIKS and SBD could be implemented quickly and were able to capture resilient data in a timely manner both on the severity and course of the influenza pandemic 2009/2010 and the outbreak of EHEC and HUS 2011. Although lacking in representativeness, sensitive and useful data were generated.In large outbreaks of severe diseases, the establishment of specific hospital surveillance should be considered as early as possible. In Germany, the participating hospitals were able to rapidly implement the required measures.

Hospitals are implementing a risk management system to avoid patient or surgery mix-ups. The trend is to use preoperative checklists. This work deals specifically with a type of patient identification, which is realized by storing patient data on a patient-fixed medium.In 127 ENT surgeries data relevant for patient identification were encrypted in a 2D-QR-Code. The code, as a separate document coming with the patient chart or as a patient wristband, has been decrypted in the OR and the patient data were presented visible for all persons. The decoding time, the compliance of the patient data, as well as the duration of the patient identification was compared with the traditional patient identification by inspection of the patient chart.A total of 125 QR codes were read. The time for the decrypting of QR-Code was 5.6 s, the time for the screen view for patient identification was 7.9 s, and for a comparison group of 75 operations traditional patient identification was 27.3 s. Overall, there were 6 relevant information errors in the two parts of the experiment. This represents a ratio of 0.6% for 8 relevant classes per each encrypted QR code.This work allows a cost effective way to technically support patient identification based on electronic patient data. It was shown that the use in the clinical routine is possible. The disadvantage is a potential misinformation from incorrect or missing information in the HIS, or due to changes of the data after the code was created. The QR-code-based patient tracking is seen as a useful complement to the already widely used identification wristband.

Digitization is found everywhere in sonography. Printing of ultrasound images using the videoprinter with special paper will be done in single cases. The documentation of sonography procedures is more and more done by saving image sequences instead of still frames. Echocardiography is routinely recorded in between with so called R-R-loops. Doing contrast enhanced ultrasound recording of sequences is necessary to get a deep impression of the vascular structure of interest. Working with this data flood in daily practice a specialized software is required. Comparison in follow up of stored and recent images/sequences is very helpful. Nevertheless quality control of the ultrasound system and the transducers is simple and safe - using a phantom for detail resolution and general image quality the stored images/sequences are comparable over the life cycle of the system. The comparison in follow up is showing decreased image quality and transducer defects immediately.

In the emergency department patients with chest pain play an important role because the underlying and concealed diseases can be life-threatening. The complaints are often nonspecific and patients also have different risk profiles. In patients in the emergency department with nonspecific chest pain a"1-stop strategy" for elucidation of the three main organs lung, hear and aorta with the 4 main differential diagnoses (aortic dissection, ruptured aortic aneurysm, pulmonary embolism and coronary heart disease) is desirable. Technical advances in computed tomography (CT) in recent years make this approach technically possible. In modern emergency departments CT equipment is becoming more and more common in order to rapidly examine trauma patients. A meaningful patient selection and preparation are, however, necessary to avoid unnecessary exposure of patients to contrast media and radiation. In this way it is possible to reduce the rate of overlooked diseases or false diagnoses.

This article analyzes the usage of an electronic patient record (EPR), which may be accessed intra-operatively by the surgeon. The focus lies on the automatic prioritization of documents to dramatically reduce the surgeon's interaction with the EPR system. An EPR system has been developed, which displays documents in accordance to the current procedure. The system is controlled by a foot switch and the documents are displayed on a large-scale screen in the operating room. The usage of the system by 2 surgeons has been recorded in clinical routine. 55 surgical procedures have been recorded. The EPR system has been used 2 times per procedure in average for surgeries at the middle ear, for surgeries of the paranasal sinuses, it has been used 1.3 times per procedure. The EPR-system has been used pre-operatively in 58% of cases. The surgeons did not have to interact with the EPR system for more than the half of the procedures to view the desired document. The existence of digitized documents in a clinic does not automatically lead to improved workflows. The evaluated EPR system presented the patient data in a simple and comfortable way. The extensive pre-operative usage had not been expected. Because of the low barrier to view patient data, higher patient safety may be assumed. On the other hand, the surgeon could be encouraged to skip the important preparation before the procedure. Due to the low pervasiveness of medical communication standards at this time, the integrated connection between clinic IT and an EPR system would nowadays only be possible by great efforts.

eHealth will influence the development of the Austrian health and social care significantly. The main part will be the implementation of an electronic health record. There are many hospital and outpatient information systems already implemented and the challenge is to enable a patient-centered communication of all health care providers by defining technical standards and the organizational and legal framework. Within this framework privacy and security have to be guaranteed at the highest possible level. Also, companies offering information systems have to improve the usability of their systems. One very important application is the filtering of relevant information according to a user profile and the optimal presentation in tables and graphs. The stepwise modular implementation and the use of international standards can be considered as a very positive approach to eHealth in Austria.

Telemedical home monitoring of glaucoma patients is not covered by health insurance in Germany. Various clinical studies have indicated that 24 h monitoring of intraocular and blood pressure of glaucoma patients allows a better evaluation of the individual disease condition. If the necessary parameters can be collected with telemedical home monitoring it will be possible to reduce the number of 24 h intraocular pressure profiles which necessitate hospital admission. Therefore inpatient 24 h profiles have been chosen as a health economical allocation base with a presentable economical value for the comparative examination. Assuming an at least identical or even higher clinical outcome of the telemedical glaucoma home monitoring inpatient 24 h profiles were chosen as a health economical allocation base to compare and contrast these methods.All procedures of the inpatient 24 h profiles at the ophthalmic clinic of Greifswald were measured using the stopwatch method. In a 1 day test run all activities of the medical staff were identified and documented in a list and afterwards measurements were carried out over 7 days with several stopwatches to allow the documentation of parallel activities. To determine the consumption of resources in telemedical home monitoring the self-documentation of all employees involved in the research project TT-MV were evaluated. Expert interviews helped to determine the economically relevant data about the applied medical technology, e.g. measuring devices, server and electronic health records.The number and complexity of the subprocesses of the inpatient 24 h intraocular pressure profiles were significantly higher compared to telemedical home monitoring. The total costs of the inpatient 24 h profiles were 571.21 € per patient including 291.21 € for medical care and 280 € for accommodation. In contrast the total costs of telemedical home monitoring were 288.72 € per patient. A direct cost comparison shows that telemedical home monitoring resulted in lower costs compared to hospital admission of glaucoma patients.Telemedical home monitoring of glaucoma patients is not only effective but also cost-efficient. As modern health care systems have to consider cost efficiency, a randomized, controlled longitudinal clinical study of both methods would be required.

The introduction of an electronic health record (ELGA) is a subject discussed for a long time in Austria. Another big step toward ELGA is made at the end of 2010 on the pilot project e-medication in three model regions; other projects should follow. In addition, projects of the ELGA structure are sped up on the part of the ELGA GmbH to install the base of a functioning electronic health record. Unfortunately, many of these initiatives take place, so to speak, secretly, so that in the consciousness of the general public - and that includes not only patients but also physicians and other healthcare providers - always concerns about protection and security of such a storage of health data arouse. In this article the bases of the planned act are discussed taking into account the data protection and data security.

Treatment data from practices and specialization centers, especially in the increasingly specialized areas which university clinics do not cover, are very important for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of dental examination and treatment methods. In the case of paper-based documentation, the evaluation of these data usually fails because of the cost it entails. With the use of electronic medical records, this expense can be markedly lower, provided the data acquisition and storage is structured accordingly. Since access to sensitive person-related data is simplified considerably by this method, such health data are protected, especially on the European level. Other than generally assumed, this protection is not restricted solely to the confidentiality principle, but also comprises the power of disposition over the data (data protection). The result is that from a legal point of view, the treatment data cannot be readily used for scientific studies, not even by dentists and physicians who have collected the data legally during the course of their therapeutic work. The technical separation of treatment data from the personal data offers a legally acceptable solution to this problem. It must ensure that a later assignment to individual persons will not be feasible at a realistic expense ("effective anonymization"). This article describes the legal and information technology principles and their practical implementation, as illustrated by the concept of a respective compliant IT architecture for the dentaConcept CMD fact diagnostic software. Here, a special export function automatically separates the anonymized treatment data and thus facilitates multicentric studies within an institution and among dental practices.

Zusammenfassung Um adäquat auf neue Bedrohungen reagieren zu können, kann sich der Öffentliche Gesundheitsdienst (ÖGD) nicht mehr ausschließlich auf traditionelle Surveillance-Strukturen verlassen. Im Januar 2009 wurde von der Abteilung für Infektionsepidemiologie am Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) eine wöchentliche telefonische infektionsepidemiologische Bund-Länder-Lagekonferenz etabliert. Die Konferenz schafft eine Plattform, auf der die Teilnehmer (zuständige Landesgesundheitsbehörden, Referenten für Infektionsschutz der Bundesländer, Bundeswehr, RKI) regelmäßig, strukturiert und zeitnah infektionsepidemiologische Ereignisse diskutieren können. In den ersten drei Quartalen 2009 wurden Ereignisse, die 46 Infektionskrankheiten betrafen, diskutiert; darunter auch Ausbrüche nicht-meldepflichtiger Erkrankungen, wie zum Beispiel Kuhpocken. Masern und Meningokokken-Meningitis gehörten zu den am häufigsten diskutierten Infektionskrankheiten. Die Ergebnisse einer Evaluation und die konstant hohe Teilnehmerzahl zeigen, dass mit der Telefonkonferenz dem Bedarf nach zusätzlichem Informationsaustausch entsprochen wurde. Die Telefonkonferenz ermöglicht direkte Kommunikation; Informationen zu Ereignissen können schneller weitergegeben und evaluiert werden. Somit können auch Public-Health-Maßnahmen rascher eingeleitet werden.