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Breaking down barriers and closing gaps: MHH cooperation project HUMAN-LS aims to improve health services for people with a migration background.
Germany has a comprehensive healthcare system that is available to everyone. However, it would appear that not everyone has the same access to the available services or is unable to take advantage of them for various reasons. In the HUMAN-LS project, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Christian Krauth, a health economist at the Institute of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Healthcare System Research at Hannover Medical School (MHH), is focusing on the aspect of migration background. In cooperation with the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), the researchers are investigating the barriers that people with a migration background experience in accessing health services in Lower Saxony – for example, in the areas of women's health, mental health and care. The state of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation are funding the project with a total of 3.9 million euros. More than two million euros of this will go to MHH.
The aim is to use health data and artificial intelligence (AI) to examine differences in access to and use of medical services. ‘We will use extensive data collections, including data from large databases such as health insurance data and data from the German National Cohort,’ explains Professor Krauth. The researchers want to actively involve associations, administration and self-help organisations, thus ensuring a high degree of social participation, in order to develop strategies and recommendations for health policy in Lower Saxony.
Closing gaps in care
The project places a particular focus on ethnic, cultural, demographic and socio-economic diversity. ‘For a variety of reasons, people with a migration background often do not receive adequate care, which leads to poorer health outcomes,’ says Professor Krauth. For example, those affected often have different disease patterns that entail different medical needs, suffer from tuberculosis, hepatitis B and chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes more frequently on average. Another major challenge arises from unequal access to health services due to language barriers, cultural peculiarities or lack of knowledge of the German health system. The project is now to provide a comprehensive overview of the extent and reasons for the gaps in care and develop solutions for overcoming them. ‘Our goal is to identify gaps in equal access to health care and then close them with the help of medium- and long-term strategies.’
Largest funding amount in the funding line
The funding of the state of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation is provided within the framework of the joint programme zukunft.niedersachsen, which supports seven outstanding research projects in gender and diversity medicine with a total of around nine million euros. HUMAN-LS (Health Equality, Migration and Diversity: Data Driven Assessment of Disparities, Digitization and Diversity in Prevention, Medical Care and Nursing Care in Lower Saxony) is receiving by far the largest amount of funding, 3.9 million euros. The project is a collaboration between the Institute of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health Research (Prof. Dr. Christian Krauth, Prof. Dr. Volker Amelung) and the Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Prof. Dr. Kai Kahl) at MHH and the LUH Institutes of Health Economics, of Information Systems and of Insurance Operations. The researchers work together within the framework of the Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH), a joint institution of MHH and LUH.
SERVICE:
For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Christian Krauth, krauth.christian@mh-hannover.de.
The HUMAN-LS cooperation project aims to close gaps in medical care for people with a migration back ...
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH/KI-generated
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The HUMAN-LS cooperation project aims to close gaps in medical care for people with a migration back ...
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH/KI-generated
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