Health Care and Health Economics: responsibilities of the department

The department has two divisions: It identifies and describes health care standards and gaps in health care. It also works on economic research questions concerning the German health care system – both for drug and non-drug interventions and for health care concepts.

The aim of the reports produced in this department is to provide a basis for needs-based health care so as to expose inappropriate or over-/underprovision of health care services.

Usually in collaboration with external experts, the staff members conduct and produce:

  • systematic guideline searches and appraisals for diseases with epidemiological relevance, which, among other things, serve as the basis for the development of new or the updating of existing disease management programmes (DMPs)
  • dossier assessments according to §35a Social Code Book (SGB) V (assessment of the information on the number of patients and on the costs of treatment provided in the dossier submitted by the drug manufacturer)
  • scientific assessments of minimum volumes, that is, the relationship between the volume of services and the quality of treatment outcomes for specific medical interventions
  • analyses of health care issues with the aim of gaining information on the health care situation
  • health economic analyses

Scientific project management for the production of HTA reports is also one of the responsibilities of the department (according to §139b [5] SGB V). These HTA reports are based on topics suggested on the website “ThemenCheck Medizin” (Topic check medicine) by statutory health insurance members and other interested people. These reports always assess benefit and harm of a medical procedure. In addition, the HTA reports can also investigate economic, ethical, legal, social and organizational aspects regarding patient care.

With the new Digital Health Care Act (DVG), since January 2020 the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) has been able to propose guidelines to the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). The department supports the development or updating of these guidelines (acc. to §§ 139 a (3) No. 3, 139 b (6) SGB V) by means of literature searches for evidence.

In addition, they further develop scientific methods on the basis of international standards in evidence-based medicine and health economics

  • for the evaluation of the quality of the content and methods of guidelines as well as for the production of guideline synopses
  • for the analyses of health care issues
  • for the production of comprehensive HTA reports and
  • for health economic evaluations

further information

Department staff

PD Dr. med. Stefan Lange

PD Dr. med. Stefan Lange

Professional profile

1982 to 1989 Study of medicine at the Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf; 1989 to 1993 Junior doctor and assistant doctor at the Medical Clinic of the Ferdinand Sauerbruch Hospital, Wuppertal (Director: Prof. Dr. J. Köbberling); 1993 to 2004 Research Associate, Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Ruhr University, Bochum (Director: Univ.-Prof. Dr. H.-J. Trampisch); 1994 Doctorate in Medicine; 1999 Biometry in Medicine Certificate of the German Association of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS); 2003 Habilitation (qualification for a professorship) and venia legendi (award of title of Privatdozent) in Medical Biometry and Clinical Epidemiology; 2004 to date Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (Director:Dr. med. Thomas Kaiser): Deputy Director since 2005; Department Head Non-drug Interventions until end of 2007.

Dr. Claudia Mischke

Dr. Claudia Mischke

Professional profile

Nurse training at the Nursing School of the Bonn University Hospital; 1990 – 1997: Nurse at the München-Bogenhausen Hospital and at the Frankfurt am Main Heart Centre; 1993 – 1997: Nursing studies at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt and at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Finland); 1997 – 1999: Quality Assurance Unit at the Red Cross Sisterhood Baden Württemberg, with a main focus on quality development in the acute, long-term and educational area; 1999 – 2003: Nursing Science Unit at the Ingolstadt Hospital Association, with a main focus on development of care and optimization of intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary processes; 2002 – 2004: Master of Public Health studies at Bielefeld University; 2004 – 2005: Consultant at the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia; 2006 – 2011: Research Associate at the University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken; 2011: Doctorate at Witten/Herdecke University; 2011 – 2015: Professor and Deputy Director of the joint programme Master of Science in Nursing at the Bern University of Applied Sciences; since November 2015: Division Head of the Health Care Division in the Department of Health Care and Health Economics.

Dr. rer. pol. Sarah Mostardt

Dr. rer. pol. Sarah Mostardt

Professional profile

Degree in Health Economics from the University of Cologne; 2007 – 2010 Research Associate in the working group “Health economic evaluation and health services research”, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation Endowed Chair for Medicine Management, University of Duisburg-Essen (Professor Wasem); 2010 – 2013 Head of the aforementioned working group; 2011 Doctorate on the topic “Disease costs of HIV infection in Germany”; 2013 – 2016 Research Associate in the Health Economics Department, IQWiG; since 2016 Division Head of the Health Economics Division in the Department of Health Care and Health Economics.

Dr. Anja Schwalm

Dr. Anja Schwalm

Professional profile

Studied Health Economics at the University of Cologne from 2001-2006; Consultant at the Department of Medical Advisory Services of the Federal Joint Committee from 2006 to 2009; Research Associate at IQWiG since 2009; Doctorate (Dr. rer. med.) at the University of Greifswald in 2015; currently Head of the Health Economics Division, Department of Health Care and Health Economics.

Nadia Abu Rajab
Christiane Balg
Dr. med. Carmen Bartel
Dr. Valeria Biermann
PD Dr. rer. pol. Tobias Effertz
Dorothee Ehlert
Madline Ehrentraut
Susanne Ein Waldt
David Endres
Corinna Ernsting
Reza Fathollah-Nejad
Katharina Frangen
Dr. rer. medic. Julia Kristin Gowik
Sabine Gruber-Hohaus
Christina Grünthal
Dr. rer. nat. Eva Höfer
Dr. rer. medic. Wiebke Hoffmann-Eßer
Nicole Holzmann
Consuela Jacobi-Yniguez
Maximilian Kind
Dr. rer. nat. Stefan Kobza
Dr. rer.nat. Alexandra Korzeczek-Opitz
Laura Krabbe
Dr. rer. medic. Judith Kratel
Mandy Kromp
Christopher Kunigkeit
Jessica Lange
Anna Margraf
Jessica Metzing
Dr. rer. nat. Ulrike Paschen
Snjezana Petzler
Dr. med. Min Ripoll
Dr. Kevin Rudolf
Kristina Schaubert
Dr. phil. Isabell Schellartz
Dominik Schierbaum
Sonja Schiller
Felix Schwarz
Dr. rer. medic. Ulrich Siering
Dr. Sportwiss. Gerrit Stassen
Dr. rer. nat. Andrea Tasar
Jessica Tauer
Dr. phil. Corinna ten Thoren
Dr. Sarah Thys
Bich Van Vilaysane-Nguyen
Franziska Vosseberg
Carolin Weigel
Kathrin Wohlhöfner
Pamela Wronski
Nina Wünst