The establishment of the new healthcare quality assurance organisation in Germany, IQTiG, continues with the recent appointment of the head of the management board
IHS Life Sciences perspective | |
Significance | The process of establishing Germany's new Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Healthcare (Institut für Qualitätssicherung und Transparenz im Gesundheitswesen: IQTiG), is moving forward, with the appointment announced recently of the head of the new organisation's management board. |
Implications | IQTiG will be responsible for evaluating and monitoring quality across the German healthcare system, while it will have a particular focus on hospitals. |
Outlook | The new organisation is sure to lead to a more intensive and better publicised quality assurance system in Germany; how this will affect stakeholders within the system, including pharmaceutical companies, remains to be seen. |
The appointment has recently been announced of the head of the management board of a new organisation, which will be responsible for evaluating quality in healthcare in Germany, called the Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Healthcare (Institut für Qualitätssicherung und Transparenz im Gesundheitswesen; IQTiG), reports Pharmazeutische Zeitung. It will be led by Christof Veit, who was until recently the head of the German Institute for Quality and Patient Safety. The management board includes representatives of doctors' groups, representatives from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), a representative of the Ministry of Health, and also the chairman of the Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss: G-BA) Josef Hecken.
IQTiG to monitor quality across healthcare system, focusing on hospitals
IQTiG will work on behalf of the G-BA, as an independent organisation, in a similar way to the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen: IQWiG); however, whereas IQWiG is occupied with assessing pharmaceuticals and other therapy options, IQTiG will be involved in monitoring the quality of care in the German healthcare system as a whole, with a particular emphasis on hospitals, as the source reports.
More appointments are due to be made during the course of the year, according to the G-BA, including appointments to the scientific advisory board, and, as the source reports, IQTiG is scheduled to start functioning officially on 1 January 2016.
New organisation part of coalition's health reforms
IQTiG was established as part of health reforms developed by Germany's governing coalition, and it is part of the act to improve the financial structure and the quality of GKV funds, which was brought into law in June 2014. Among its main tasks will be to develop cross-sector indicators and instruments for the measurement and representation of care quality, including the development of additional patient surveys.
Hospital 'league tables' planned
As German medical news source Ärzte Zeitung reports, among the planned activities of the new organisation that have received the most public attention are the planned ranking of hospitals, and the requirement to publish reports on hospital care in an accessible form on the internet. The source reports Hecken's statement that IQTiG will create structures, which will help secure treatment quality in doctors' surgeries and clinics. This will mean, according to Hecken, that patients will be able count on reliable quality information, even in the case of more risky treatments.
IQTiG to operate with same independence as IQWiG
Ärzte Zeitung reports that IQTiG will operate in an independent scientific capacity, with IQWiG seen as the model of its status. The source states that currently the organisation responsible for providing quality assurance services to the G-BA is the independent AQUA-Institut; this organisation's contract with the G-BA to provide these services will expire at the end of 2015. IQTiG will be based in Berlin, as is the G-BA.
Outlook and implications
The establishment of this new organisation is sure to be associated with a more intensive and more public-facing quality assurance in Germany's healthcare system. As the task of Germany's healthcare regulators becomes more complex, and involves greater numbers of patients, staff and different approaches to treatment, it is fitting that a sufficiently substantial organisation should be in place to oversee matters of quality. It will be interesting to see if there will be provision for collaboration between IQWiG and IQTiG; although pharmaceutical producers are unlikely to be in the front line of IQTiG's attentions, as an integral part of the healthcare system, they will be affected by its activities.