On signing the agreement, the President of the University of Bremen, Bernd Scholz-Reiter, said “This cooperation with the AOK is very important for us”. The University has already made positive experiences of collaborating with the health insurance provider in various other projects. “The framework agreement is anything but a meaningless shell. It marks the beginning of close cooperation in the medium- and long-term“, explains Olaf Woggan, Chairman of the Management Board of AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven.

Deutschlandstipendien and internships

The framework agreement foresees that the AOK will actively support especially qualified and engaged students and early-career academics. Among other things, it will step up its participation in the Deutschlandstipendien [German stipend] program.

Cystitis: Must it always be treated with antibiotics?

An example of a concrete medical problem on which the University and the AOK will collaborate is how to tackle cystitis. Nowadays, more than half of such uncomplicated infections of the urinary tract are treated with antibiotics: Yet, there is no clear evidence that this is really necessary. Alternative forms of therapy would probably lead to the same result, although this still has to be clinically proven. The Institute für Public Health and Nursing Research in the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences will now carry out a comparative study on this highly relevant social topic.

Relief from attacks of dizziness

Chronic dizziness is a so-called niche illness affecting only a small part of the population. “So far there is no real cure”, says Woggan. Up to now, therefore, doctors adopt a symptomatic approach to help patients cope with dizziness. “We want to examine the situation more closely and hope to come up with a training method for those affected.” The research project titled “Spatial Stability” aims at improving patients’ motoric abilities and capacity to act. They learn how to cope better with spells of dizziness and prevent falling over. This project involves researchers from the fields of neuropsychology and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Bremen.

Partners at the University

The Health Sciences are one of the six strong high-profile research areas at our University of Excellence. Interdisciplinary projects working on applied medical research also draw on the expertise of other Faculties like Biology/Chemistry, Computer Science and the Social Sciences. As the University President, Bernd Scholz-Reiter, stresses, “Transferring the results of research to society at large is one of our University’s a principal commitments.”