Advantages of personal members

Members are welcome to participate in the network's current 25 working groups (Arbeitsgruppe) and expert groups (Fachgruppe). They can actively participate in the preparation of memoranda and/or publications of the DNVF working or expert groups. In addition, members can submit a proposal to the board of directors regarding the foundation of a new working or expert group and assume the coordination of the group if the board approves this establishment.

The DNVF is regularly invited by the IQTIG and the Federal Ministry of Health to participate in commenting procedures. The comments are prepared by the respective thematically qualified working and expert groups or, if necessary, by Ad hoc commissions. Ad hoc commissions are also established on other current tasks, activities and topics of the Network and of health services research. Participation is open to all members.

DNVF members receive a membership access key for the protected member area at www.dnvf.de. On these pages, internal information of the association is stored (e.g. minutes, draft resolutions, working papers, etc.). Working groups may work together on documents and initiate blogs on specific topics.

Members receive a discount at the DNVF Forum for Health Services Research. The regular participation fee is 95 € and the reduced fee for DNVF members is 55 €.

The natural persons (members of section 4) are entitled to vote in the general assembly. Personal members' votes are weighted with a factor of 0.25.

The DNVF annually awards the Wilfried Lorenz Health Care Research Prize, worth €2,500, which serves to further develop health care research in Germany and to promote young scientists. The prize is awarded in memory of the DNVF's honorary member, Prof. Dr. Wilfried Lorenz (1939-2014). The prize is intended to honour and promote individual scientists or a group of scientists who are members of the DNVF and who apply with an original paper that has been published in a peer-reviewed Journal or has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed Journal within the 12 months preceding the call for applications. Personal members are entitled to apply.

The DNVF newsletter for members is published about six times a year including current topics of health services research, job offers, reports on activities and links to DNVF publications.

The DNVF publication organ is the journal "Das Gesundheitswesen". The memoranda and publications of the DNVF and its working and expert groups are published in this journal. DNVF members can access the DNVF publications free of charge via a direct link in the protected member area of the DNVF website. This also applies to the four DNVF pages in the journal "Monitor Versorgungsforschung" (MVF), which mainly refer to and report on DNVF events.

Members of Section 4 "Natural Persons" can obtain the DNVF's publication organ, the journal "Das Gesundheitswesen", at a special annual rate of 174 € (instead of 345 €) plus postage from the Thieme-Verlag. Personal members will receive detailed information on how to take advantage of the discount in the welcome letter at the beginning of their membership.

The DNVF working group "Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO)" is available to DNVF members for free research advice on the selection of PRO instruments. To contact the working group, members can use the application form in the protected member area, in which the applicant outlines the most important criteria of his or her request.