EANS-News: Julia Klöckner and CompuGroup Medical Team up for Organ Donations

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Subtitle: Results of a representative survey: Physicians save lives based on
conviction

Koblenz (euro adhoc) - October 14, 2010: The waiting lists are long, there
aren´t enough donated organs, and the affected patients are desperate. People
still seem to have reservations about donating organs. More information must be
made available. CompuGroup Medical wants to help interested physicians educate
and convince people about this important topic. Julia Klöckner, parliamentary
secretary of state and CDU state chair for Rheinland-Pfalz, has agreed to
sponsor this important, life-saving project.

With organ donations, the donor´s organs will be made available to severely ill
individuals after the donor´s death. Consent to organ donation must be given
while the potential donor is still alive; up to now this was generally done
with an organ donor card. Without this official consent, the organs cannot be
harvested for transplantation. Many physicians that would like to increase the
number of life-saving organ donations are aware of this issue. More than half
of those surveyed (50.9%) already demonstrate their personal willingness to
donate their organs with a donor card. However, not all physicians act on their
convictions. More than one out of three physicians (35.2%) reports not having
given it much thought so far. Only 13.6% have made a conscious decision against
filling out a donor card.

Basic willingness to donate is sought
Statistics make it alarmingly clear: There have been fewer organ donations and
organ transplantations in Germany in the past few years - a development that
German Health Policy is also trying to reverse at this time. The majority of
surveyed physicians believe that the numbers could be improved through new
organ donation regulations. More than seven out of ten (72%) are in favor of
changing the current requirement of giving consent to requiring an objection.
In practice, this would mean that explicit consent would no longer be required
and an active objection would be required by those not wanting to donate. In
contrast, one fourth of surveyed physicians (26.8%) want to keep the current
solution of requiring consent.

In favor of organ donations, but against a competition
People that are willing to make their organs available after their death should
not do so based on an egotistical calculation. That is the opinion of almost
two thirds of the surveyed physicians (63%). They are strictly against
rewarding the willingness to donate with a better spot on the waiting list.
However, not every physician finds such ulterior motives distasteful. More than
one in three (35%) believes it is fair that people willing to donate should
have faster access to a donated organ in the event they need one.

There is still a great need for education in German doctors` offices
Even though German physicians have a positive attitude toward organ donations,
they don´t actively convey their conviction during daily patient interactions.
It is encouraging to find that three out of ten surveyed physicians (30%) do
encourage their patients to give some serious thought to organ donation - but
only in certain cases. More than six out of ten physicians (60.5%) admit that
they practically never approach the subject with their patients. Only one out
of ten (9.5%) emphasizes that he/she usually tries to get their patients
interested in organ donation. Julia Klöckner and CompuGroup Medical would like
to increase this interest in the future with the campaign "(M)ein Klick fürs
Leben" (one click for life).

About CompuGroup Medical AG
CompuGroup Medical is one of the leading e-health companies worldwide. Its
software products, designed to support all medical and organizational
activities in doctors´ offices and hospitals, its information services for all
parties involved in the healthcare system and its web-based personal health
records contribute towards safer and more efficient healthcare. The services of
CompuGroup Medical are based on its unique customer base of around 370,000
doctors, dentists, hospitals and networks as well as other service providers.
CompuGroup Medical is the e-Health company with one of the biggest coverage
among e-health service providers worldwide. The company operates in 14 European
countries as well as in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and in the USA and
currently employs around 3,000 people.

The CGM GesundheitsMONITOR:
The CGM GesundheitsMONITOR is a joint initiative of CompuGroup Medical, the
Medical Tribune and the Rhein-Zeitung. They perform representative monthly
surveys of 440 general practitioners with regard to current issues in the
healthcare system. You can download free printable graphs and find publications
as well as information about the representative survey at www.cgm-
gesundheitsmonitor.de.

About Medical Tribune:
For over 40 years, the Medical Tribune has been one of the most widely read
publications for private practice physicians. The popular weekly newspaper
offers an attractive mix of medicine, health and professional policies relevant
to private practice, and economic issues that apply to the medical profession.
In a unique style, the Medical Tribune provides multi-faceted continued
education, personal advice, and interesting reading material within a
newspaper. The Medical Tribune´s success story has been documented by the
independent readership review (LA-MED) for decades.

About Rhein-Zeitung:
The Rhein-Zeitung area of circulation connects the metropolitan areas Köln-Bonn
and the Rhein-Main region. The economically strong region around Koblenz is
located in the center. With a circulation of right of 224,000 copies and 17
local issues, the Rhein-Zeitung has approximately 640,000 readers.

Further inquiry note:
CompuGroup Medical AG
Barbara Müller
Consultant Press & Media
P +49 (0) 261 8000-1293
F +49 (0) 261 8000-3284
E-Mail: [email protected]
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: CompuGroup Medical AG
Maria Trost 21
D-56070 Koblenz
phone: +49 (0) 261 8000-0
FAX: +49 (0) 261 8000-1166
mail: [email protected]
WWW: www.cgm.com
sector: Software
ISIN: DE0005437305
indexes:
stockmarkets: regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt, free trade: Berlin,
Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, München
language: English

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