Skip to main content
Log in

Health services research in German radiation oncology: new opportunities to advance cancer care

Medizinische Versorgungsforschung in der Radioonkologie: neue Optionen für Fortschritte in der Krebsbehandlung

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Strahlentherapie und Onkologie Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Health services research (HSR) is of increasing relevance to scientists, health-care providers, and clinicians. Complex population-based secondary data are a key source of information for analyses of health-care effects in radiation oncology.

Methods

In this short paper, we examine potential applications of secondary data focusing on statistics from the diagnosis-related groups (DRG). This data set incorporating all hospitalized cases in Germany is based on claims of reimbursements and is provided by the Research Data Centers (RDC) of the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the federal states. A short outlook regarding other data sources is also presented.

Results

In radiation oncology, secondary data such as the DRG statistics have rarely been used to examine health-care effects, despite their great potential for reporting effects in a broad population-based setting. Furthermore, for most data sources, the application to use these data is accessible with minor effort. However, data concerning outpatient care are difficult to analyze on a comparable level.

Conclusion

DRG statistics and related secondary data provide a remarkable source of information for analyses of health-care-related effects in radiation oncology.

Zusammenfassung

Hintergrund

Versorgungsforschung gewinnt für Wissenschaftler, Gesundheitsdienstleister und Kliniker zunehmend an Relevanz. Komplexe bevölkerungsbasierte Sekundärdaten sind eine wichtige Quelle zur Untersuchung von Versorgungseffekten in der Radioonkologie.

Methoden

In diesem kurzen Artikel untersuchen die Autoren mögliche Anwendungen von Sekundärdaten, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der fallpauschalenbezogenen Krankenhausstatistik (DRG-Statistik, Diagnosis Related Groups) liegen soll. Dieser Datensatz bezieht alle Krankenhausfälle in Deutschland ein und wird von den Forschungsdatenzentren (FDZ) des Statistischen Bundesamts und der Statistischen Ämter der Länder zur Verfügung gestellt. Ein kurzer Ausblick auf andere Datenquellen wird ebenfalls gegeben.

Ergebnisse

In der Radioonkologie wurden Sekundärdaten, wie z. B. die DRG-Statistik, trotz ihres Potenzials zur Analyse der Versorgungssituation auf einer bevölkerungsbezogenen Ebene bisher nur unzureichend genutzt. Gleichzeitig ist die Nutzung dieser Daten in der Mehrzahl der Fälle mit geringem Aufwand möglich. Allerdings gestaltet sich die Analyse von Daten aus dem ambulanten Bereich deutlich schwieriger.

Schlussfolgerung

Die DRG-Statistik und verwandte Sekundärdaten bieten eine bedeutende Quelle für Analysen gesundheitsbezogener Effekte in der Radioonkologie.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kaatsch P (2015) Krebs in Deutschland 2011/12. Robert Koch-Institut und Gesellschaft der epidemiologischenKrebsregister in Deutschland e. V., Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  2. Delaney G, Jacob S, Featherstone C, Barton M (2005) The role of radiotherapy in cancer treatment: estimating optimal utilization from a review of evidence-based clinical guidelines. Cancer 104:1129–1137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lievens Y, Grau C (2012) Health economics in radiation oncology: introducing the ESTRO HERO project. Radiother Oncol 103:109–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Borras JM, Lievens Y, Barton M et al (2016) How many new cancer patients in Europe will require radiotherapy by 2025? An ESTRO-HERO analysis. Radiother Oncol 119:5–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lievens Y, Defourny N, Coffey M et al (2014) Radiotherapy staffing in the European countries: final results from the ESTRO-HERO survey. Radiother Oncol 112:178–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lohr KN, Steinwachs DM (2002) Health services research: an evolving definition of the field. Health Serv Res 37:7–9

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Data supply | Diagnosis-Related Group Statistics (DRG Statistics) (2016) Research data centres of the federal statistical office and the statistical offices of the federal states. http://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en/database/drg/index.asp

    Google Scholar 

  8. Glocker S, Loskamp N, Bamberg M, Roeder N (2006) Evaluation of flat-rate payment in radiation oncology. German experience with disease-related groups for inpatient funding in radiation oncology. Strahlenther Onkol 182:305–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wong K, Delaney GP, Barton MB (2016) Evidence-based optimal number of radiotherapy fractions for cancer: A useful tool to estimate radiotherapy demand. Radiother Oncol 119:145–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Schubert-Fritschle G, Combs SE, Kirchner T, Nüssler V, Engel J (2017) Use of multicenter data in a large cancer registry for evaluation of outcome and implementation of novel concepts. Front Oncol 7:234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Schmidberger H (2017) Reimbursement of radiotherapy in Germany. Cancer Radiother 21:544–546

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dasch B, Kalies H, Feddersen B, Ruderer C, Hiddemann W, Bausewein C (2017) Care of cancer patients at the end of life in a German university hospital: a retrospective observational study from 2014. PLoS ONE 12:e175124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Reinhold T, Dornquast C, Börgermann C, Weißbach L (2016) Treatment costs of localized prostate cancer in Germany: economic results from the HAROW observational study. Urologe A 55:1573–1585

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Bekelman JE, Halpern SD, Blankart CR et al (2016) Comparison of site of death, health care utilization, and hospital expenditures for patients dying with cancer in 7 developed countries. JAMA 315:272–283

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Berger B, Ankele H, Bamberg M, Zips D (2014) Patients who die during palliative radiotherapy. Status survey. Strahlenther Onkol 190:217–220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Frenzel T, Krull A (2015) The use of IMRT in Germany. Strahlenther Onkol 191:821–826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Marnitz S, Köhler C, Rauer A et al (2014) Patterns of care in patients with cervical cancer 2012: results of a survey among German radiotherapy departments and out-patient health care centers. Strahlenther Onkol 190:34–40

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Datta NR, Khan S, Marder D, Zwahlen D, Bodis S (2020) Radiotherapy infrastructure and human resources in Switzerland : present status and projected computations for. Strahlenther Onkol 2016(192):599–608

    Google Scholar 

  19. Zurl B, Bayerl A, De Vries A et al (2018) ÖGRO survey on radiotherapy capacity in Austria: status quo and estimation of future demands. Strahlenther Onkol 194:284–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Medenwald.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

D. Medenwald, C.T. Dietzel, and D. Vordermark declare that they have no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Medenwald, D., Dietzel, C.T. & Vordermark, D. Health services research in German radiation oncology: new opportunities to advance cancer care. Strahlenther Onkol 194, 1097–1102 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00066-018-1357-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00066-018-1357-4

Keywords

Schlüsselwörter

Navigation