‘Positive Health’ research project - new dialogue on health promotion in GP practices

Prevention and health promotion should play a greater role in the healthcare of the future than they have to date. However, there is still a lack of practicable concepts as to how this health policy goal can be achieved in everyday medical practice. This is where the new "Positive Health Innovation" study, led by the Institute of General Practice and Primary Care (iamag) at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H), comes in.

It is based on the "Positive Health" counselling concept developed by Dutch general practitioner Machteld Huber; this offers a promising approach to health promotion in GP practices and other medical facilities and has contributed to a successful patient-centred reorientation of the health care system in the Netherlands. In collaboration with the universities of Duisburg-Essen, Heidelberg, Düsseldorf, Bochum and Cologne, Witten/Herdecke University is now investigating how the concept can be transferred to GP practices in Germany.

Testing Positive Health in GP practices

Positive Health is to be trialled with 15 GP practices in three regional healthcare networks in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. "Positive Health helps us to better address the biopsychosocial dimensions of health in dialogue with patients and to jointly develop suitable therapeutic goals," emphasises Prof. Dr Achim Mortsiefer, head of the project and iamag at UW/H.

At the centre of Positive Health is a graphical survey instrument on which a person is asked to rate their own health in six dimensions such as mental well-being, body and quality of life between 0 and 10 (see illustration). The resulting spider web diagram is the starting point for moderated self-reflection; it is intended to support health-promoting self-activities (empowerment) and enable more effective medical and psychosocial support.

"As a GP, I have had surprising and valuable experiences with the use of Positive Health in my practice - both in individual consultations, in my team with colleagues and in joint application in collaboration with other professionals in the neighbourhood. I am delighted that colleagues in Germany are now also enthusiastic about the idea and that a supra-regional project has materialised," reports Karolien van den Brekel from "Positive Health International" based in the Netherlands.

The study design envisages three phases: Firstly, the concept for health networks will be further developed with the involvement of relevant stakeholders and taking regional circumstances into account. The subsequent practical testing phase will take place in GP practices. Finally, the results will be analysed and processed with the help of all project participants in order to make the intervention applicable to standard care in the future.

Interdisciplinary collaboration in the project

The Institute of General Practice and Primary Care (iamag) at Witten/Herdecke University (Prof Dr Achim Mortsiefer) is the consortium leader of the project. The participating consortium partners are the Institute of General Practice at Duisburg-Essen University Hospital (Prof. Dr Jürgen in der Schmitten), the Department of General Practice and Health Care Research at Heidelberg University Hospital (Prof. Dr Attila Altiner/Dr Simon Schwill, MME), the Institute of General Practice, Centre for Health and Society (ifam/chs) at Düsseldorf University Hospital (Prof. Dr Stefan Wilm), the Institute for Medical Biometry and Epidemiology at the Ruhr University Bochum (Prof. Dr Nina Timmesfeld) and the Institute for Health Care Economics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Cologne (Prof. Dr Stephanie Stock).

The project is funded by the Innovation Fund of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) with a sum of 2.5 million euros over three years and is being carried out in cooperation with the Dutch Institute for Positive Health (iPH) and the international training and implementation partner "Positive Health International" (PHi), as well as with Positive Gesundheit Deutschland e. V. and the umbrella organisation Salutogenese e. V.