President of the Medical Association Klaus Reinhardt complains about a lack of control in the care of patients in Germany. There is no coordination of "when, how, where, who and why they go to the doctor", Reinhardt said on ZDF's "Morgenmagazin" before the start of the German Doctors' Conference in Leipzig.
"We are the only country in the world that actually leaves it up to the patient alone to decide where to go with their complaints," said Reinhardt. Medicine is highly complex and based on a division of labor. It is often not clear to patients alone where they are in the best hands.
The President of the German Medical Association supported plans by the new federal government to introduce a primary doctor system. This means that patients would generally visit a GP practice first, which would then either take over the entire treatment itself or refer patients to specialist practices if necessary. This would be better than patients having to navigate the maze of care structures on their own.
The President of the Medical Association sees "great opportunities" for greater efficiency in the healthcare system in the use of artificial intelligence. In many areas - from administrative work to the deployment of staff and the detection of illnesses to the provision of therapies - doctors could receive an "incredible amount of support from AI".
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