Dear CoRe-Net members,
dear Sir or Madam,
we are pleased to present our sixth international newsletter. It provides up-to-date information concerning CoRe-Net ‒ a competence network connecting scientific practice and research in Cologne.
If you are looking for cooperation partners or methodological advice, please feel free to contact us.
For further information on CoRe-Net, please visit our English website.
1. Start of the second funding period
On May 1st, 2020, the CoRe-Net project officially started the second funding phase. Over the next three years the network will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which has approved structural funding of 2.1 million Euros.
We are very grateful to all project participants and applicants for their support and look forward to further cooperation!
Read more about the new focus areas here.
2. News from the CoRe-Net subprojects
2.1. LYOL-C II – Last year of life study Cologne II:Tailoring & impact of the trigger question-based Gold Standards Framework combined with Patient Question Prompt Sheets to deliver patientcentered care in hospitals
On May 1st, 2020, LYOL-C II started the second funding period. Together with OrgValue and the department of Sociology and Social Psychology, an intervention is designed in a multi-stage process and tested in practice. The new project starts with the aim of making healthcare in hospital more patient-centered in order to increase the long-term benefit for patients in their last year of life. The ethical approval for the study is currently in preparation.
Read more here.
2.2. MenDis-CHD II – A primary care physician based intervention to improve health care in coronary heart disease patients with mental and cognitive disorders
MenDis-CHD produced two major publications on patient data to date, which are currently undergoing internal revision.
Cross-sectional results from our previous study in the first funding phase (MenDis-CHD I) indicate that guidelines for the treatment of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and mental/cognitive comorbid disease are not sufficiently implemented. Unrecognized and untreated comorbid mental/cognitive disorders in CHD patients have a negative impact on health outcomes.
The follow-up project MenDis-CHD II started on May 4th. The focus of MenDis-CHD II is on improving the management of general practitioners of CHD patients with mental/cognitive disorders. For this purpose, project meetings will be held soon, which will mark the start of the project and implement the project planning.
Read more here.
2.3. OrgValue II – A primary care physician based intervention to improve health care in coronary heart disease patients with mental and cognitive disorders
The interviews of the feasibility study on the collection of key company figures in supply organisations in the city of Cologne were summarised. First findings were presented in an overview for project members.
In addition, the newly gained views of the different healthcare organizations were prepared for the students of the course “Management in Healthcare”.
Results of the patient interviews were published in a scientific article in the magazine BMJ Open. You can access this article on our homepage under the heading Publications.
In addition, virtual meetings for the organisation and implementation of first steps within the framework of OrgValue II take place.
Read more here.
3. News from the cooperation projects
3.1. K-APAT – Ambulatory parenteral antibiotic therapy
At the University Hospital Cologne, patient enrolment and the associated patient surveys continue to run according to plan. Due to the current situation caused by the corona pandemic, we have not yet been able to start enrolling patients as planned in the other clinics of the Network Infectiology Cologne.
Due to the restrictions, the planned focus groups (group discussions) with clinicians and general practitioners cannot be carried out at present. Therefore, we are now concentrating fully on the preparation of the general practitioner survey, which we would like to start in summer. We are currently in the process of developing the questionnaire and organizational planning. We are looking forward to the survey and hope to gain new insights.
Read more here.
4. International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM)
A relevant approach for CoRe-Net is the concept of Value-based Healthcare, as represented by ICHOM.
ICHOM contributes to value-based healthcare by defining global standard sets of patient-centered outcome measures, promoting their acceptance and reporting on these measures worldwide.
As part of a series of conferences, which are a series of online events, ICHOM offers various webinars and conferences. The first webinar will take place on May 27th 2020. It will be held by Professor Michael Porter and the ICHOM Board of Directors and will discuss value-based healthcare in a pandemic.
With best regards,
Prof. Holger Pfaff und Dr. Nadine Scholten
on behalf of the applicants