[Health-care research from the German Medical Association's perspective on small-area analysis]

As early as 2003, the German medical profession realized the necessity of not only forwarding medical research, but also analyzing the process of health care itself. Approved by a decision of the 108th German Medical Assembly in 2005, an initiative on health-care research paid by contributions of the medical profession was launched. Since then several projects have been supported with the results being published continuously. From the perspective of the German Medical Association, the success of the initiative also proves the effective approach of the scientific and medical communities' self-administration. Although the current results from health-care research can be used to support health-care politics and decision making at a macro level, a focus on small-area analysis tends to be an intrinsic attribute of health-care research, keeping a local approach toward changes so as to obtain real effects. Without local settings and without data reflecting the local situation, the"last mile" of a health-care system, which is the core subject of health-care research, will not be comprehensible.