Hospital.Help

Berlin The critics from the professional public and the Federal Council have prevailed. In the future, the institute that will take care of public health will be called the Federal Institute for Public Health (BIG).

This emerges from the proposed amendments to the original BIPAM establishing law German medical journal present. The name BIPAM, short for Federal Institute for Prevention and Education in Medicine, is now off the table.

However, the splitting of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) planned by the law and the resulting merger of individual departments with the Federal Center for Health Education (BzGA) are not off the table.

The proposed amendments now specify the areas of responsibility and the profile of the new BIG. In the future, knowledge about environmental health conditions will also be included in the assessments, and epidemiological research will also be anchored as a task by law. In the future, the institute will also take on communication tasks, especially those with chronically ill people.

In the future, there will also be tasks for the new institute in the communication of emergency preparedness and emergency management.

The amendments also make it clear that the institute will remain independent and autonomous in its scientific research. This is particularly true in the area of ​​methods, implementation and evaluation of research projects and their results.

The law also regulates so-called non-technical topics, including vaccination in pharmacies for COVID-19 and inactivated vaccines. Testing for various diseases should also be possible there. This led to protests from the medical profession. © bee/aerzteblatt.de