The institute's multidisciplinary team comprises more than 40 scientific and non-scientific staff members from fields including general medicine, health services research, psychology, sociology, health economics, information systems, computer science, epidemiology, and medical assistants. In addition, there are doctoral students in human medicine in the doctoral program. Lecturers in general and occupational medicine are committed to supporting the training of medical students.
In the continuing education network for general medicine, the institute provides individual and longitudinal support to prospective specialists in the respective sections, including special case seminars. To this end, the institute (spokesperson function) coordinates continuing education for specialists at the Competence Center for General Medicine North Rhine-Westphalia in accompanying seminar days and mentoring programs with four university institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia. To ensure qualified and evidence-based continuing education, trainers and their teams receive specially tailored coaching in train-the-trainer workshops to make in-house continuing education attractive and successful.
The aim of the institute's research is to scientifically evaluate general practice and identify strategies for optimization. Epidemiological methods are used for this purpose. Our findings are intended to support general practitioners in implementing evidence-based medicine for their patients. Patient-centered care in general practice is a high priority in all of the institute's research projects.
The diversity of the institute reflects the different tasks in general medicine and strengthens the entire spectrum of general medicine as a specialty in the present and future.