Our demand for health policy

„A path is created by actually walking it.“
(A Chinese saying)

 

Did you know that in Germany alone 15 million people suffer from arthritic joints? That the outcome is 50 million days of absence from work due to unfitness and 25% cases of early retirement? And there is an alarming trend: artificial joints are being fitted at an increasingly young age and with ever greater frequency. About 375,000 knee and hip joint operations are performed every year, with an upward trend. Astronomic costs are putting a strain on the insurers – and the insured are again being presented with the bill. The “multi-billion-Euro business with knees and hips” has long since been receiving media coverage. 1

More and more responsibly minded specialists are speaking up, such as the spinal column specialist Dr. Martin Marianowicz from Munich. His conclusion: “The everyday reality is really shocking. 300,000 backs are operated on in Germany every year, that’s three times as many as in England in terms of the total population, twice as many as in France.“ He continues: “40 to 45 percent of the [spinal] operations don’t produce the desired outcome. That’s why we need to do some rethinking.“ 2

Until now there didn’t seem to be any way out of this dilemma. Costs are increasing, the patient has to pay. Yet for decades there has been an alternative means of treatment, which – if researched further and recognised – could be a solution to the dilemma. In Germany, in veterinary medicine it has been used routinely on dogs and horses since 1993 with excellent results, as reported to us by veterinary doctors. 3 In Denmark it has already been applied to more than 10,000 people according to the statistics available:

gold implantation.

So why, we ask ourselves, is gold implantation not used more often on humans? Why is it that animals are receiving better treatment in this respect than humans?

The long-term experience with dogs and horses in Germany shows that these are, in most cases, able to run free of pain after a gold implantation as soon as they are awake after the anaesthesia – in fact for a whole lifetime. We likewise became aware of this method through vets.

It is our goal for gold implantation to become a recognised and accessible method for treating degenerative joint diseases.

 

Gold implantation as a supplementary therapy is advantageous for young and old

We want to ensure that more and more physicians, especially orthopaedists and orthopaedic clinics, offer or recommend gold implantation as a supplementary therapy to their patients. Knowledge of acupuncture and a doctor’s general skills in the field of pain therapy can be helpful according to our observations, but they are not absolutely necessary.

Gold implantation could benefit greatly both younger and older patients as well as high-risk patients. Much would be gained if, for example, according to medical findings an operative intervention could possibly be delayed by decades or even become superfluous in the case of younger patients. One can also think of cases where doctors, after weighing up all advantages and drawbacks, in some circumstances abstain from performing demanding surgery on older and high-risk patients and decide instead on a gold implantation. Should a joint prosthesis subsequently become unavoidable, an earlier gold implantation will present no obstacle.

 

Each patient has his or her own particular fate

The Ackermann Team has set itself the task of presenting an almost risk-free and uncomplicated method of treatment as an alternative to joint replacement. We would like to inform millions of people with joint diseases about this option. In the individual cases and within the framework of a detailed treatment concept, they should be able to weigh up between all available therapies.

It is not our aim to question the fundamental benefit of artificial joints. Depending on the individual findings they can help patients greatly. But in view of the insurance companies’ great deficits, we cannot ignore the fact that there is an ever-growing number of doctors who are voicing criticism. At the Surgeons’ Congress in 2010, the President of the German Society for Surgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie), Dr. med. Reiner Fradinger, said: “We are suffering from an increasing commercialisation of medicine. In other words, unnecessary operations are being performed because they bring in money for the clinics and practices.” And he continued: “[…] the growing orientation towards profit rather than to patient benefit is one of the most important topics at the Surgeons’ Congress in Berlin.“ 4

The strained state of the health insurers’ finances forces to do some rethinking. This is why we are seeking to address those in positions of responsibility and those who can support us. We need a broad consensus among medical doctors so that gold implantation can be employed for the benefit of all.

Each patient has his or her own particular fate – from strong pains to restricted mobility, often resulting in problems within the family, being unfit for work and social exclusion. All those working in the health care system share responsibility for this. The Barmer GEK predicts that very soon all 60- to 65-year-olds will have a new knee or a new hip. “The question needs to be raised whether doctors operate too hastily“, the vice president of the Barmer GEK, Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker, warns. 5

 

Annual cost savings of 300 million euros

A thought experiment: If only 10 percent of all operations on knee and hip joints could be replaced by gold implantations, that would result, based on a conservative estimate, in annual cost savings of 300 million euros! If further joints were included in the calculation, we can assume that the cost savings could amount to billions!

In the long run, neither health insurance companies nor the state can afford such escalating costs.

But most importantly, if gold implantation were recognised as a therapy supplement by a large section of the medical profession, in many cases it would then be possible to help younger people in an uncomplicated way, and one might be able to help older people to lose their fear of complications and relapses. Let us also bear in mind that most of the orthopaedic clinics and practices are hopelessly overstretched, which means that doctors and nursing staff are being burdened with unacceptable overtime. By reducing the amount of pre-treatment and aftercare and by effectively decimating pain treatment, gold implantation here too could reduce precious working hours significantly. The patient would benefit from this by receiving the appropriate quality of treatment.

Endoprosthetics is not the method of choice in all cases. There are supplements and alternatives, depending on the findings!

 

Endoprosthetics in comparison with gold implantation

By means of the following table we do not intend to conclude that gold implantation could replace endoprosthetics completely or in every case. Likewise, we do not claim that the therapeutic effectiveness of gold implantation has already been verified extensively.

Again, we point to the experiences reported to us by patients and to studies about the effectiveness of gold implantation. The following list considers the question: Which advantages can possibly be expected for large parts of the population in comparison if, where medically justifiable, providing endoprosthetics can be replaced by gold implantation?

This reflection does not include any promise of healing in individual cases, since the prediction for every patient can always only be given by the individual physician.

 

	endoprosthetics	gold implantation
durability	12–15 (20) years	no data available
rehabilitation measures	40% of all rehabilitations	experience suggests none necessary so far
complications	10–30%	experience suggests none known so far*
infections	500,000 per year	experience suggests none known so far*
costs	3.5 billion euros per year ca. 10,000 euros per endoprosthesis incl. rehabilitation; follow-up operations not included	a fraction of the cost compared to endoprosthetics, depending on the number of treated joints; no rehabilitation costs
expenditure of time after the operation	1–2 weeks in hospital 3 weeks of rehab 4 weeks walking aids 10–12 weeks of work incapacity (estimated)	hospital/rehab: entfällt gemäß bisherigen Erfahrungen; work incapacity: only 1–2 days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* The fact that no complications or infections through gold implantation have been reported up to now does not preclude that these would theoretically be possible.

 

Nationwide campaign

By means of our activities we want to make gold implantation for humans better known. This means taking an unusual approach. Without our intervention, doctors of human medicine in Germany would not have become aware of gold implantation, either from abroad or via the established veterinary medicine. Thus, our appeal is directed not only at the physicians treating patients and at the decision-making bodies, but also at all those patients who are suffering from arthrosis and joint diseases.

We take the initiative by calling on ...

• ... medical doctors to extend the range of therapies for patients with joint diseases by including a successful, low-risk and reasonably priced additional therapy, and

• ... decision-makers to make use of their contacts within the health system to encourage further trials to be undertaken and to find sponsors for these trials.

We do this work voluntarily and without financial interest.

Germany’s health system is full of ramifications and cross-connections. Every health insurer, every hospital, every medical institution has its own special, authorised people in various associations and decision-making bodies. In accordance with the procedure set down by the Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) it is now up to those responsible to take the initiative — so that help can be given safely and at a reasonable price to millions of people with diseased joints.

Before a new medication or a new alternative medical therapy can be included in the public health insurance list of approved treatments (“Leistungskatalog der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung”), their benefits have to be verified through studies. Since in our bureaucracy with all its red tape there is virtually no chance for a private person to apply successfully for an optional alternative medicine – even if it has been tested thousandfold on both humans and animals – we filed an application for the recognition of gold implantation with the Federal Joint Committee and the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen, IQWiG) in 2010.

This campaign ensures that all those in responsible positions in the health sector are informed about the potential for saving millions and are called upon to act.

Many arguments are in favour of gold implantation. Obtain more information here. Take part in the campaign!

 

How can you as a patient make this method known better?

Ask the doctors treating you about gold implantation. Ask your orthopaedist whether he can perform gold implantation. Make gold implantation known to the doctors. Ask your health insurance company for support for gold implantation. Obtain information and tell others of the wealth of information on our website in all inquiries – here you will find further arguments, how to apply the method and much more. Please feel free to pass on the flyer "Goldimplantation" (in German).

Do it for yourself, for your relatives and friends and last but not least for your health insurer, because you, we are the ones who are paying!

 

Appeal to the doctors responsible

Statistics operate with mere numbers. They do not express the pain, the despair and often the hopelessness hiding behind the cold numbers.

Join in and help: provide your patients, within the scope of what is feasible and sustainable, with a medical alternative that has proven thousandfold on humans and animals! You can acquire the necessary skills. If you are interested, please talk to us.

Exercise your influence in supporting the required studies. Get your National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung) involved so that the Gemeinsame Bundesausschuss (G-BA) can agree to evaluating the method.

 

How can you help in clinic management?

Participate in studies which are necessary for the recognition of gold implantation. Talk to us!

 

What can you do as a politician?

Bring the gold implantation up for discussion in committees. Pave the way for introducing this method to our health system.

Join us in helping others! Thank you very much.

 

Yours
Ackermann Team