gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Recent years have seen a surge in efforts to foster intersectoral collaboration between inpatient and outpatient medical care. In many countries, medical specialists combine their academic practice with a private outpatient clinic. This is a single-institution, single-surgeon report on developing a Privademics system emanating from a large German university center.

Methods: This is to describe the intersectoral collaboration between the department of neurosurgery of a large neurosurgical university center and a private practice with one board certified neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon in charge of the private practice was also employed part time as an attending at the University Hospital. We undertook a strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis based on the first two years of this ongoing collaboration.

Results: From the University Hospital perspective, the benefit was that of having a seasoned surgeon cover calls and train residents. Academic output was also increased by the collaboration. Furthermore, residents may rotate through the private practice to obtain experience in outpatient medical care. From the private practitioner perspective, a continuous exchange with peers ensures being involved in new developments in the field. Especially complex cases benefit from the more intense inpatient and the more personal outpatient care afforded by the Privademic system. However, legal contractual challenges may impede the initiation or survival of such a collaboration.

Conclusion: Interconnecting private practice and University medicine in Germany is an onerous, but potentially rewarding undertaking. It provides benefits to academic development and patient care. For Privademics to thrive, a high degree of motivation is mandatory on the local level. As regulatory bodies are on the verge of softening intersectoral borders, we advocate Privademics as a viable future concept.