German National Database (NDB)

In the German National Database of the Regional Cooperative Arthritis Centers, clinical and patient-reported data of more than 13,000 patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases are annually collected since 1993. This continuous documentation of rheumatology care depicts how new therapies and changes in medical guidelines reach routine care. It also allows to identify deficits in health care and to correlate them with age, gender and other parameters. The participating facilities use the documentation for internal quality assurance by comparing their results with those of other documenting centers.