The Federal Health Monitoring System - how it came into existence

Basics and concepts for the Federal Health Monitoring System were created within a multi-annual research project, which was financially sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (former Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology) as well as the Federal Ministry of Health.

It was the general aim of the project to improve the availability of health data in Germany and at the same time stepwise to create a data infrastructure, which can be used by politics, science, research and the general public as a valid information base for an informed discussion.

The research project was based on a work-sharing approach. A variety of experts and institutions provided their knowledge and their data to the Federal Health Monitoring System for the purpose of reporting and they participated actively in the work process. The work-sharing approach has proven to be successful and is continuing till today.

At the beginning of 1999 the Federal Health Monitoring System passed from the research phase into the routine phase and is since collective task of the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Statistical Office. The Robert Koch Institute has the responsibility for the Federal Health Monitoring and coordinates the reporting system. The task of the Federal Statistical Office is the operation of the Information and Documentation Centre "Health Data".

The political responsibility for the Federal Health Monitoring lies with the Federal Ministry of Health.

The cooperation ensures that in addition to valid and current data also profound statistical, medical and epidemiological knowledge can be used for the health monitoring.