gms | German Medical Science

Background: Persons with Parkinsons Disease (PwPDs) require accessible, long-term, multi-disciplinary, person-centered treatment. Building care networks has been shown as a useful tool to improve outcomes for PwPDs and care providers. In France and Germany, a growing number of regional integrated care concepts for PwPDs have emerged. However, they differ in their conceptual and organizational approach. At the same time, most information on how to implement such networks is expert-based, whereas empirical knowledge about these networks and factors of importance for sustained viability remains limited. Several theoretical frameworks for integrating care delivery have been suggested. The Development Model for Integrated Care (DMIC) is a validated tool for developing integrated care models, which has been used in real-world settings. The German and French healthcare system may be suitable subjects to comparative research (population size, reimbursement schemes etc.) but, so far, PD-networks have not been assessed systematically.

Aim: Taken the urgency to transform health care delivery for PwPDs, the contribution presents a study protocol for a planned structured assessment of PD-networks in Germany and France. The study will be an important contribution to guide integrated care network development based on a structured comparison using a validated and widely applied tool. Research questions of such a first cross-sectional assessment are: Do the networks differ in their maturation state and comprehensiveness regarding the different elements of the DMIC? If differences between single networks exist – Is there a systematic difference between network activities in France in Germany?

Method: A leading expert of each PD-network in Germany and France will be contacted and invited to participate in the study. The expert will be asked to complete the DMIC model in the form of a structured telephone interview. The DMIC will be supplemented by a structured interview. When answering the questions experts will be specifically asked to also consider the activities of nationwide organizations in order understand their impact on the development of regional integrated PD-care services.

Next, the results from the survey will be discussed with an expert panel from both countries in a structured discussion format to develop joint recommendations for future activities of regional integrated PD-care concepts. This first cross-sectional analysis could be a basis for standardized future longitudinal follow up studies.