[Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony Rehabilitation Research Group].

The principal subject of the Rehabilitation Research Network of Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony (BBS) is "the theoretical and practical bases of the organisation and economics of rehabilitation". What is involved is a nation-wide analysis of the rehabilitation system, i.e. obtaining empirical information on the question as to what organisational forms are currently used to carry out rehabilitation and what results are achieved. This empirical stocktaking also includes economic aspects as far as possible. This study is to serve as a basis for developing, testing and implementing steps to rationalise steering mechanisms in the rehabilitation system. The first aspect to be studied is "national steering problems in institutionalised forms of rehabilitation". The focus is on projects on information management and performance and quality management in rehabilitation sciences as well as on the actual work of a number of bodies paying for rehabilitation (Bundesversicherungsanstalt für Angestellte, Landesversicherungsanstalten) as well as rehabilitation facilities (clinics etc.). The two other focuses of the study will examine "rehabilitative adjustment to remedies and technical aids/prostheses" and problems facing "family members in the context of rehabilitation". In studying these two areas, we are particularly interested in examining the interaction between institutionalised aspect of rehabilitation and informal factors both inside and outside the system. The BBS approach is supported by close co-operation with the regional pension insurance institutes (BfA, LVAs) with regard to both the data model and steps being taken. The principal instrument of co-operation is the "Gesellschaft für Rehabilitationswissenschaften e.V." (Society for Rehabilitation Sciences). In Berlin the BBS co-operates with Free University, the Technical University and the Robert Koch Institute and in Saxony with the universities in Dresden and Leipzig. Responsibility for scientific questions in the BBS lies with the Institute for Rehabilitation Sciences of Berlin's Humboldt University.