Читать книгу DiGA VADEMECUM - Jörg F. Debatin - Страница 24

With DiGA, however, medicine can now be integrated into patients’ everyday lives in a low-threshold way. Whether in the form of a digital diary, relaxation exercises, sensor technology for home monitoring, or nutrition coaching, first generation DiGA can be smartphone- or browser-based, and support ambulatory care outside of the average 7.6 minutes of doctor-patient interaction. They can collect longitudinal data from patients’ daily lives and induce and track behavioural changes. With DiGA, the everyday implications of patients’ conditions can also be established and improved upon to a greater extent than before. In terms of health technology assessments of DiGA, the focus is placed not only on purely medical benefits, but also on a holistic view of the patient’s broader health situation.

The fact that the German healthcare system, which has so long and so successfully resisted almost any form of digital technology, is now creating a structured opportunity for such tools to be introduced is a turning point. This step does not yet mean that all sceptics are convinced, nor that broad swaths of clinicians, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, health insurers, and hospitals are suddenly ardent supporters of DiGA in particular or digitalisation in general. Nevertheless, DiGA can now prove themselves in the reality of care. Everyday practical experience can be gained and the advantages and disadvantages as well as opportunities and risks of digital health applications can be better understood.