In Reply

The department of patient information within the German Network for Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) provides an ideal platform for the dissemination of EBM and evidence based patient information (EBPI) (www.ebm-netzwerk.de). We agree that without doctors, sustained provision of EBPI seems unlikely to be successful. In order to develop EBPI, methodological expertise is crucial, as is specialist expertise. Methodologists for EBPI should set out the information in collaboration with medical experts and patients, on the basis of agreed criteria. The medical specialty societies should adopt this as a core responsibility, for example, by setting up specific working groups. User-friendly communication of scientific data from clinical studies is another requirement. Thus far, for example, guidelines are not set out in a format that enables immediate use of their information for EBPI (1, 2). Essential data are either not extracted from the original sources or not presented in a user-friendly format. Implementation of medical guidelines in patient guidelines is an important first step (3), but they so far cannot be used for informed decisions by patients (1, 2). The Association of Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften, AWMF) is called upon to develop guidelines, with support from methodological experts for patient information, in such a way that information from these is then available for a parallel setting-out of EBPI and decision aids.

Comprehensible communication of EBPI is the prerequisite for patients’ participation in medical decisions. Structural adjustments are essential. We suggested including health professionals who are not doctors, similar to the way in which the transfer of competences for self-management is done for some chronic diseases (3).

DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2012.0802b

Dr. phil. Matthias Lenz, Prof. Dr. med. Ingrid Mühlhauser

Fakultät für Mathematik, Informatik und Naturwissenschaften
Institut für Pharmazie, Gesundheitswissenschaften

Universität Hamburg
matthias.lenz@uni-hamburg.de

Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.