MIVOS project on minimum frequency of hospital interventions

Rüdersdorf/Berlin, 10 May 2024

There is still insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of minimum requirements for the frequency of interventions per hospital. This is the result of a comprehensive study named MIVOS conducted at the Institute of Health Services and Outcomes Research IVGF, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB). Prof. Dawid Pieper heads the institute and is in charge of the project. He points to numerous studies worldwide which document a correlation between the frequency of specific medical interventions performed in a hospital and the quality of care: “One consequence is a centralization in health systems, controlled in Germany via regulations on minimum frequency of hospital interventions, among other things. The effect of such regulations is being debated, but no comprehensive survey of the state of research is available so far. Our systematic evaluation does not quite close the gap but clearly indicates a need for robust studies into the topic.”

Preliminary results of the study, which is highly relevant to patient care, suggest that the above regulations may improve the quality of treatment. But conclusive evidence requires further research. One important step in that direction is the design of a standardized data set of measurable results: a Core Outcome Set. This tool is intended to improve the registration and comparison of centralization effects in health systems worldwide.

Co-funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the MIVOS project provides a unique systematic overview of effects of minimum regulations in hospitals. The concluding symposium took place in Berlin on 6 May as a platform of exchange for researchers, practitioners and patient representatives who discussed the project results and defined further measures to implement findings in practice. The speakers included Prof. Dawid Pieper, Stefanie Pfisterer-Heise (MHB), Prof. Tim Mathes (Universitätsmedizin Göttingen) and Julia Scharfe (MHB) as well as Christine Dehn (representative of patients and EU issues with Deutsche Herzstiftung), Dr. Jürgen Malzahn (director, hospital section, AOK Bundesverband) and Prof. Dr. Andreas Schnitzbauer (deputy director, department of general, visceral, transplant and thorax surgery, University Hospital Frankfurt).

Scientific contact
Prof. Dr. Dawid Pieper
Director IVGF
Phone: +49 33638 83992
E-Mail: dawid.pieper@mhb-fontane.de