Press
Financial Times - medbiz - 09/2006
Building Links
Partners from science, clinics, industry and tourism are cooperating in an
orthopaedic network and hoping to increase turnover.
It was a sunny day. In the auditorium of orthopaedic faculty of the
university hospital of Rostock, Germany, prominent representatives from
the economy, politics and science were gathering. Once this brick building
had been the maternity clinic, where children were born.
On this July day it was the location for the kick-off session of the
orthopaedic competence network which had been established in April.
Together, the speaker for the project, Wolfram Mittelmeier, Chief Surgeon
of the Orthopaedic Clinic and Prime Minister of the State of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Harald Ringstorff unveiled the new logo.
It was the birth of an unique network concept in Germany. Until now,
cooperations only existed between hospitals and rehabilitation clinics.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the collaboration will cover seven partners with
differing backgrounds from hospitals and rehabilitation clinics to medical
engineering and the hotel business.
In the future the Orthopaedic Clinic of the University Hospital will work
together with the Rehabilitation Clinic Moorbad in Bad Doberan, the
Neptun Hotel, the companies Liebau Orthopaedic Engineering, Medical
Engineering Rostock and DOT a specialist of prosthesis manufacturing.
Most of the partners have known each other for a long time. Although
initially they only wanted to increase workflow and improve networking. In
the meantime they have developed higher goals: "Just now we are developing
different high quality service offerings in which we can provide
"All-inclusive-packages" to patients." says Doctor Mittelmeier. Together
the partners design new health care processes and marketing strategies.
"We would like to increase the inflow of foreign patients." explains
Mittelmeier. Another aim of the network is to attract private paying
patients.
The first product developed as the replacement for a worn out artificial
hip joint is already conceived. The planning of the operation and other
therapy is organised by the University Hospital whilst the prosthesis is
produced and delivered by DOT. The post operative rehabilitation takes
place in Bad Doberan. The participating medical engineering businesses
deliver the necessary accessories and equipment. Following a successful
rehabilitation the five star hotel Neptun in Warnemünde offers a health
oriented holiday at the Baltic Sea.
The project partners benefit from the tight linking of the processes,
whilst the patients benefit from the scheduled procedures leading to a
more effective and faster therapy. "Everything from the prosthesis to the
wellness holiday is in harmony." Says Mittelmeier. "We would like to make
the patient feel that everything is scripted, just like a screenplay."
The partners cooperate in smaller part projects already. For example, the
prosthesis specialist DOT develops new products together with other
medical engineering businesses which are then tested in the University
Hospital prior to being used there or in the rehabilitation clinic. In
their turn, the Hotel Neptun cooperates with the rehabilitation clinic
Moorbad in Bad Doberan on staff training: The nurses learn about the
service levels in a hotel whilst the hotel staff are taught about how to
deal with handicapped patients.
Hotel Neptun would like to profit from the collective competences and to
attract health orientated guests, says Jörg Schlottke the assistant
manager. The utilisation of the 350 rooms should increase from on average
69 % to 75%.
The company Liebau orthopaedic engineering hopes to acquire private paying
patients from all around the world. "In future more and more medical aids
will have to be paid for privately." says managing director Gunnar Liebau.
He expects an exclusive position in the network with a medium-term
increase in sales of 25 % in one year.
"On our own we do not stand out enough to attract foreign customers." says
Andreas Markschies the Managing Director of the company Medical
Engineering Rostock. Besides the partnership with the University Hospital,
that is very interesting in terms of research. Additionally to that,
explains Johannes Dietrich, manager of Therapy Technic Rostock wishes to
equip the hospital.
Finally, through the cooperation with the University Hospital, DOT the
prosthesis specialist would like to bring their products faster to the
market, mentions Hans-Georg Neumann. A hip prosthesis which was developed
together shall enter the market in the autumn. Within in the next five
years DOT has planned to double its annual turnover 2005 (14 Mill. Euro).
Until now the network has not received any criticism. The province of
Mecklenburg- Vorpommern has the ambitious goal to become health state
number one in Germany. The network receives support for the project work
through the state coordination office for health economy, BioCon Valley.
Financially the network, on its own, needs to generate 30.000 Euro per
year whilst the State Department of Economy supports the network with
100.000 Euro per year.
Ministry of Economy Otto Ebnet expects more jobs and more income. 86000
people work in the health economy, the following years it could be 10 to
15 % more.
Also the health insurances commend the network. Because in the end the
network also makes an offer to normally insured patients mentions Johannes
Lack from the AOK Mecklenburg-Vorpommern one of the biggest health
insurers in Germany.
One of the first patients who came to the university via the network was
an American who wanted to replace his hip prosthesis. Doctor Mittelmeier
mentions that this patient was especially content with the well organised
process in the network. Although there was one "downer" for the American
patient: the taxi driver did not speak English. The network will also
manage this problem.