[Structured documentation for quality management in patients with diabetes mellitus]

The medical services rendered by office-based physicians have to be assessed on the basis of valid, practicable, and reliable indicators. The necessity to implement such indicators follows from the fact that quality and economic efficiency have been combined. The indicators can be derived from already existing guidelines. The target is to define medical services according to their type, extent, frequency and their point of intervention with regard to the medical problems and the treatment goals. The aim is to implement measures that permit the qualitative and economic evaluation of medical services. On the basis of these indicators the Central Institute of Panel Physicians develops together with scientific groups data sets that are able to show if, and to which degree, physicians act guideline-conform. The data sets can be used as documentation modules for transmission purposes and will therefore be integrated into the standard interface for basic clinical data profiles of already existing practice computer systems. While the Centre of German Physicians for Quality Assurance in Medicine is responsible for guideline-development, the conversion of the guidelines into appropriate data set structures is accomplished by the Central Institute of Panel Physician. This close co-operation represents a useful division of the work to be done in connection with the implementation of quality management in physician offices.