About Us

IQWiG was established by legislation as part of Germany's 2003 health reform. It is an independent, non-government and non-profit foundation that is intended to support evidence-based decision making in the German health care services. The Institute is funded through a levy on healthcare services and may also accept funding from the Federal Ministry of Health. The Institute accepts no sponsorship or advertising and does not seek grants. You can read more about the board and structure of the foundation and IQWiG at the IQWiG website.

IQWiG undertakes and publishes assessments of the effectiveness, quality and efficiency of health care services. It receives commissions from the Federal Joint Committee of Self-Administration of the Health Care Services (Gemeinsame Bundesausschuss) and the Federal Ministry of Health (Bundesgesundheitsministerium) in areas including diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, disease management programs and the assessment of clinical guidelines.

The Institute is also a scientific resource for the general public and the health care community. It is an independent publisher of evidence-based consumer health and patient information, but does not provide individual patient advice.

IQWiG undertakes projects and research work on its own initiative. The work of the Institute's staff is supplemented by external contracting of projects. The Institute began operating on 1 October 2004. The Institute has departments, including one for the production of health information for the public.

The Director of the Institute is Professor Peter T. Sawicki. He took up this post on 1 September 2004.

Gesundheitsinformation.de and Informed Health Online

The development of Gesundheitsinformation.de in German and in English was approved in July 2005. The German website went online on 14 February 2006. Informed Health Online went online in May 2006.

The publication of this bi-lingual website is undertaken as part of IQWiG's legislative remit to inform the public. The website includes information for consumers and patients based on the Institute's own scientific publications, as well as on topics it chooses itself. It will also include items of patient information commissioned by the bodies named above.

Draft health information prepared by IQWiG is circulated to its board, advisory groups and consumer representatives. Editorial authority remains with IQWiG.

The Editor-in-Chief of Gesundheitsinformation.de/Informed Health Online is Hilda Bastian. She was also the editor of the original Informed Health Online, an evidence-based information website that was an offshoot of the Cochrane Collaboration.

All of the Institute's departments are involved in the development of IQWiG's health information, including the provision of medical, scientific and statistical expertise. The Department of Health Information includes people with expertise in communication, medicine, journalism, nursing and the social sciences, as well as evidence-based health information.

The Department's members are:

• Hilda Bastian (Head of Department and Editor-in-Chief)
• Dr. Andreas Waltering (Deputy Head of Department)

• Roland Büchter
• Dr. Martina Ehrlich
• Bettina Eilmes
• Dennis Fechtelpeter
• Marco Knelangen
• Heidemarie Kufner-Rausch
• Yamina Merabet
• Sabine Mooren
• Susanne Müller
• Dr. Mona Nasser
• Tina Rhodes
• Dr. Tracy Slanger
• Beate Wiegard
• Beate Zschorlich

• Sarah Atorf (student assistant)
• Jasmin Kämpfer (student assistant)
• Tanja Trogrlic (student assistant)

Consumer input

We are grateful to the consumer groups, and dozens of patients and consumer advocates who have contributed to the contents of this website in the following ways:

• Providing their views on which topics would be interesting to them
• Evaluating drafts of our information
• Contribute their personal stories to this website through personal interviews
• User-testing of the website

External expert input

We are also grateful to the research authors and content experts who have commented on draft versions of our information.

Methods

The information on this website are based on the best evidence that was available at the time of publication. Every article provides the date of publication, as well as the evidence on which the information is based.

We undertake extensive literature searches for relevant high quality evidence for the topics we publish. We rely primarily on systematic reviews of trials to answer questions on the effectiveness of treatments and other interventions. You can read more about systematic reviews and why we use them here.

All of the research we use has been evaluated by our team to ensure that it meets our standards for research quality. Drafts of our information go through multiple stages of quality assurance involving patients as well as healthcare experts from Germany and around the world.

We maintain a watch for new systematic reviews to find those that might interest our readers. This process also helps us know when information on our website needs to be updated in the light of new knowledge. This will help us be sure that outdated information is removed from our website. You can read more about our scientific and editorial methods on the IQWiG website.