Die Grenzen der Inneren Medizin

“The limits of internal medicine” was the congress motto of the 128th Congress of the German Society of Internal Medicine in Wiesbaden in 2022. In his presidential address Prof. Lerch focused on four aspects of this motto: physician-assisted suicide, lessons from the corona pandemic, deficits in the digitalization of the German healthcare system and the German Sonderweg in applying EU regulations for patient data protection. Using data from Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands, where different forms of physician-assisted suicide are practiced, Prof. Lerch appealed to internists, specifically in family practices, to confront this issue in view of a German Supreme Court ruling. With respect to the development of the corona pandemic he discussed the root causes of the opposition to vaccination in parts of society as well as the question why non-clinically active and only few clinical disciplines have shaped the discussion about corona protection measures in Germany. Another focus of his speech was the insufficient digital maturity of the German healthcare system, which clearly lags behind other countries with respect to digital transformation. Physicians need to become more involved in the digital transformation in order to reorganize the healthcare system for the benefit of the patients. The German Sonderweg in the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires a new legal framework to enable a pragmatic and progressive use of patient data for medical research and patient safety.