ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1624053
This article is part of the Research TopicInsights in Healthcare Professions Education: 2025View all 7 articles
The Gap in Medical Education: The Missing Element of Digital Health Economics Education -a prospective cross-sectional pilot study
Provisionally accepted
Stefan Hertling1*
Franziska Loos2
Fabrizio Bambina3Oliver Schoeffski4
Isabel Graul5Georg Matziolis6
Ekkehard Schleussner7- 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
- 2Practice for Orthopedics and Shoulder Surgery Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, Leipzig, Germany
- 3Lindenlohe KlinikAsklepios Clinic Lindenlohe, Specialist Clinic for Orthopaedics and Spinal Surgery, Lindenlohe, Germany, Lindenlohe, Germany
- 4Chair of Health Economics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany, Nürnberg, Germany
- 5Department of Trauma-, Hand- and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Jena, Jena, Germany, Jena, Germany
- 6Orthopedic Department, Campus Eisenberg, University Hospital Jena, Eisenberg, Germany, Eisenberg, Germany
- 7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany, Jena, Germany
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Background. The increasing economization of healthcare requires greater integration of health economics content into medical education.Objective. This study examines medical students' attitudes towards health economics and their preferred teaching formats.Materials and methods. This prospective cross-sectional pilot study is based on a survey of medical students at the 36 medical faculties in Germany between April and October 2021. For this purpose, questionnaires were established. We received feedback from the participating students through two 24-point questionnaires.Results. 3042 students of human medicine took part. The results reveal a significant gap in education and care: 75% of respondents consider their knowledge to be insuJicient, while 93% are in favor of digital teaching formats such as e-learning. Significant diJerences in approval are evident according to age and stage of study, but not according to gender. Based on these results, the concept of Digital Health Economics Education is proposed as a forward-looking teaching concept that conveys health economics content digitally, interdisciplinarity and in a way that is firmly anchored in the curriculum. This form of learning oJers great potential for addressing structural challenges such as resource scarcity, increasing economic pressure to make decisions and a lack of management skills in everyday medical practice. Close cooperation between medicine and health economics in research and teaching is required to enable sustainable integration into the curriculum.
Keywords: Health Economics, Medical Teaching, Students, Faculties of Medicine, Medical Education, pilot study, Digital Health Economics Education
Received: 06 May 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hertling, Loos, Bambina, Schoeffski, Graul, Matziolis and Schleussner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stefan Hertling, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
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