Research on healthcare delivery can only do so much to improve the lives of patients. Identifying the weak spots is important to start off with, but is not going to help patients one bit if they don’t get information that is actually useful let alone in time.
It is for that reason that the NAVICARE project not only focusses on doing research but also to provide information for patients, as well as bringing healthcare providers together in the NAVICARE network. The premise of NAVICARE is that somehow we need to help patients to navigate the fragmented healthcare landscape. We do so by using the diseases stroke and lung cancer as model diseases, prototypical diseases that help us focus our attention.
One deliverable is the stroke atlas: a document that provides different healthcare providers – and people and organizations who can help you in the broadest sense possible once you or your loved one is affected by a stroke. This stroke atlas, in conjunction with our personal approach at the stroke service point of the CSB/BSA, will help our patients. You can find the stroke atlas here (in German of course).
But this is only a first step. the navigator model is currently being further developed, for which NAVICARe has received additional funding this summer. I will not be part of those steps (see my post on my reshuffled research focus), but others at the CSB will.
