Guten Tag!
Monday: June 28th, 2010
Hello again from Deutschland,
Today we traveled to the University of Duisberg-Essen to receive our first of three lectures from Joch and Nic on "International Pharmaceutical Markets with particular regard to International and Comparative Health Care". The presentation was given to a joint class of ourselves and German students who will receive a Masters in Medical Management. The class was a great opportunity to apply what
we have learned so far on our Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE). We have already met with the CEO and executives of TK, a major social health insurance company, as well as the pharmacy representative of the local physicians board. We also toured and rounded with physicians at the Niederburg hospital. This allowed to us to build a basis of understanding that facilitated our discussions at the University. We discussed the differences in the German and United States healthcare system and both student groups quite adamantly stated that the other country's system could not function in their own. We are here for combining international best practices though, so hopefully over the next 3 weeks we can reach some sort of agreement. We had lunch at the Essen student cafeteria, not the best food to say the least, but that's at least one thing that our countries have in common- bad student cafeteria food. Three of the German students volunteered to do an interview and were quite candid with their answers. Hopefully you will check out our video blog below concerning the student perspectives of both groups.This week we will be traveling to Berlin and learning more about the German healthcare system in relation to the United States. We will be meeting with the Assistant Secretary of Health, a national patient advocate group, as well as the National Board of Pharmacy. We may still get to see Parliament, but with the current political issues of the German President resigning unexpectedly and an immediate election required, it may get a little dicey. As Joch says, on top of the "Official Program", in the evenings we will also try to get out and experience the culture and see the city.
More blogs to come, we promise. We will be learning more about the duties of a community pharmacist in the coming weeks as well as some specialties that are quite unique to Germany, such as compounding herbal teas and homeopathy. We are having a great time over here and are all thinking of our family and friends daily.
Talk to you soon,
Adam, Lisa, Anna, Tammy, Jamie, Anne, Trina, Michelle, Angela, Stephanie, and Amy
Tschuss!
Most of Germany's health care coverage is provided by 180 statutorily created insurance funds which receive their cash mostly from private citizens and employers. Tax subsidies support about 10 percent from the costs of the funds. There is really a liberal use of co-pays and other incentives. The insurance funds are designed to compete with each other to keep costs down and high quality up.
Go Jamie! We hope your having fun, and look forward to hearing all about your experience when you come home.
Josh, Anne, and Cole
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