Dear Colleagues,
I am extremely pleased to present the volume of papers for the 91st
Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck
Surgery. Which - quality makes the difference? The limitation of quality
characteristics in the context of evaluating effectiveness of different areas of
ENT medicine occupies a large space in the presentation of our discipline. This
is not limited to the benefit assessment considerations of the G-BA (Gemeinsamer
Bundesausschuss; governmental administration for payment regulation in
medicine), or regulatory instruments for insurance companies, but extends via
guidelines up to the sophisticated notion of evidence. In the definition of the
term of “evidence”, the concept of quality touches much more,
since from a medical point of view it depends on the structure of the service
provision, the quality of training of the medical and specialist staff, the
whole package of pre- and post-treatment and on the concept of
interdisciplinarity, which is important in many treatment areas.
