The pio­neer model of phy­si­ci­an assistants or nur­ses com­bi­ned with tech­no­lo­gy super­vi­sed by phy­si­ci­ans could be a solu­ti­on for pati­ent-cen­­­te­­red care in rural are­as.

Hei­del­berg, 30 August 2023: Brin­ging pri­ma­ry care in rural regi­ons clo­ser to pati­ents through the use of phy­si­ci­an assistants (PAs) or nur­ses and smart tech­no­lo­gy. The start­up Lil­li­an Care is doing pio­nee­ring work with its approach. Suc­cessful trail­bla­zing in terms of via­bi­li­ty, digi­tal sup­port for tre­at­ment pathways and pati­ent accep­tance, as the field stu­dy con­duc­ted in the Ger­man sta­te of North Rhi­­ne-Wes­t­­pha­­lia has now shown. Lil­li­an Care could thus con­tri­bu­te to sol­ving one of the major health­ca­re pro­blems in times of demo­gra­phic chan­ge: medi­cal under-pro­­vi­­si­on in struc­tu­ral­ly weak regi­ons.

Long distances, long wai­ting times, stres­sed medi­cal assistants and over­work­ed phy­si­ci­ans are part of the rea­li­ty of pri­ma­ry health­ca­re in rural are­as. Pre­vious attempts by muni­ci­pa­li­ties, health insu­r­ers and aging GPs to coun­ter­act the shrin­king num­ber of prac­ti­ces in rural are­as have all fai­led or only work­ed in iso­la­ted cases. But time is pres­sing. Alre­a­dy today, more than 4,100 medi­cal prac­ti­ces in Ger­ma­ny are unoc­cu­p­ied, and accor­ding to a stu­dy by the Robert Bosch Foun­da­ti­on, this figu­re is expec­ted to rise to more than 11,000 by 2035. As a result, almost 40 per­cent of Ger­man dis­tricts will be threa­ten­ed or affec­ted by a lack of medi­cal care.

Triad of Nurses/Physician Assistants – Technology – Physicians

Lil­li­an Care has deve­lo­ped a medi­cal prac­ti­ce con­cept based on inter­pro­fes­sio­nal task sha­ring and modern tech­no­lo­gies, in order to ope­ra­te local prac­ti­ces for pri­ma­ry care in coope­ra­ti­on with muni­ci­pa­li­ties and health insu­r­ers – irre­spec­ti­ve of the place of resi­dence of the atten­ding phy­si­ci­ans. The focus is on the role of PAs and nur­ses, who are given more tre­at­ment respon­si­bi­li­ty and their own lati­tu­de in accordance with their trai­ning. Phy­si­ci­an (tele­me­di­cal) super­vi­si­on within the frame­work of appro­ved medi­cal dele­ga­ti­on will ensu­re the pro­vi­si­on of medi­cal tre­at­ment. In addi­ti­on to hybrid care, medi­cal con­sul­ta­ti­on hours are also offe­red on site. Tre­at­ment is pre­ce­ded and accom­pa­nied with the help of a bin­ding pati­ent app, which has an important gui­ding func­tion. Lil­li­an Care will pro­vi­de the on-site phy­si­ci­ans with prac­ti­ce rooms, infra­struc­tu­re, te