Mission Statement
"Rethinking medicine" shapes the future of health care in rural areas under the auspices of demography and digitisation.
„Rethinking Medicine“
- pursues the goal of digitally supporting health care in rural areas and shaping it with empathy for people,
- overcomes the boundaries between professions and sectors in the interest of patients,
- bears the signature of the University of Siegen: interdisciplinary and user-oriented research, dedicated to the goal of shaping a humane future, and
- takes place in the real lab: It is about the people and their health in the region, taking into account their real living environment.
Academic partners of "Rethinking Medicine" are
- the University of Siegen,
- the School of Medicine and the University Hospital Bonn,
- the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam and
- the University of Health in Bochum.
Clinical partners are the four Siegen clinics:
- the Diakonie Clinic
- the DRK (German Red Cross) Children's Hospital Siegen
- the District Hospital Siegen
- the St. Marien Hospital Siegen
Further partners of "Rethinking Medicine" are:
- ANSWER, the network of practicing physicians in South Westphalia. The aim is to experience and evaluate exemplary, experimental background with a focus on digitisation in real treatment settings, as well as to further develop and validate them on a long-term basis.
- the Siegen University Medicine Foundation, which promotes research and teaching in medicine and the life sciences, as well as public health and public health care in the Siegen region. The foundation supports selected research projects in pilot projects when applying for funding and provides funds for preparation and start-up financing.
- the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Westfalen-Lippe (Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Westphalia-Lippe) in Dortmund
- the health region Siegerland GbR
- prospective: further networks of the supply system in the region
"Rethinking Medicine" limits it's study room - the real lab - to:
- South Westphalia and the surrounding catchment area of the four Siegen clinic partners, the doctors based there and the people living in this area;
The aim of the pilot project "Rethinking Medicine" is to find solutions to problems in the medical supply chain:
- We want to use the scientific, technological and social expertise of the University of Siegen for research to improve health care in rural areas.
- We want to use selected, common diseases to show how a seamless supply chain can be established in rural regions. We are looking at what reaches patients at home.
- We want to evaluate what contribution digital technologies and new fields of activity can make to health care professions in order to support physicians in establishing seamless supply chains into rural communities.
- We want to validate the benefits of digital tools and new fields of activity for healthcare professionals alongside doctors - all from the perspective of payers, service providers, patients and their relatives.
- We want to investigate which ethical and social questions arise in new care models and how they can be answered.
- We want to investigate whether seamless, digitally and interprofessionally supported supply chains can make outpatient health service providers and registered doctors in rural areas work more efficiently and thus relieve the burden on them; and in connection with this, whether job satisfaction among doctors and in other health professions is increasing.
- We want to investigate how patients in rural regions in particular benefit from digitally and interprofessionally supported supply chains and how they can be involved in the development of new technical and social services.
- We want to analyse how interface problems can be solved through digitally supported, interprofessional and intersectoral cooperation.
- We want to investigate how the health competence of patients in rural regions can be strengthened and how care can become more effective.
- We want to contribute to making new supply chains attractive for standard care.