University chairs
In Germany, rehabilitation medicine is poorly represented at medical universities or faculties, especially when its integration into clinical care is considered. For example, only 6% of faculties in Germany have chairs in rehabilitation medicine with clinical relevance. In the USA this figure is 50% and in France even 95%. Therefore, the integration of rehabilitation into medical studies is incomplete. On the other hand, all physicians are confronted with people in need of rehabilitation on an almost daily basis. In addition, about 10,000 doctors work in the field of rehabilitation.
The individuals and institutions responsible for designing the medical curriculum have apparently recognized the need for teaching about rehabilitative topics in the medical curriculum. For example, the Master Plan Medical Studies 2020, the National Catalogue of Competence-Based Learning Objectives (NKLM) and the new Medical Subject Catalogue (GK) all include rehabilitation, physical medicine and interprofessional cooperation. Rehabilitation is also a central part of the draft bill for the reform of the medical licensing regulations (ÄApprO).
However, this welcome development also poses a challenge: the lack of chairs makes the implementation of these plans almost impossible. The Scientific Medical Alliance for Rehabilitation (WMAR) therefore sees it as one of its main tasks to draw attention to the necessity of establishing chairs for rehabilitation medicine at all medical faculties and universities and to demand the creation or maintenance of such chairs at the political level. The WMAR working group "University Chairs" aims to develop concepts and implementation strategies for this purpose.
Speakers
Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Gutenbrunner
Working group members
Prof. Dr. med. Markus Bassler
Prof. Dr. med. Wilfried Mau
Prof. Dr. med. Karsten E. Dreinhöfer
Advisory function
Dr. Susanne Weinbrenner (DRV-Bund)
