Research in Health Services & Regions - Zentralinstitut für die kassenärztliche Versorgung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

The Journal Research in Health Services & Regions is sponsored by the Central Research Institute for Ambulatory Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany (Zentralinstitut für die kassenärztliche Versorgung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Zi). Zi is a tax-exempt not-for-profit foundation and the research institution of the 17 regional German Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Vereinigungen) and the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung, KBV). Zi’s research is focused on health services using physician claims data and drug prescription data. Zi’s research projects are implementation-oriented, and often taken as input in the decision making process by the self-governing bodies of the German health care system. Zi‘ mission is to help enable improved ambulatory health care as part of Germany’s universal health care system. In 2011 Zi initiated the German Health Care Atlas (Versorgungsatlas) addressing spatial variation in health care delivery.