The Internet is revolutionising medicine and already offers fascinating possibilities for information and communication about health and illness: from search engines, electronic patient files and expert systems to portals for evaluating doctors and hospitals and the management of one's own health via apps. A new kind of medicine - internet medicine - is changing the world of everyone involved in healthcare. From patients to doctors and therapists, from health insurance companies to medical technology companies, from pharmacists to pharmaceutical companies. The speed of this development brings with it opportunities and risks. Opportunities for great innovations that benefit our patients. And risks that range from useless health tips to life-threatening therapies. Systematic development and control, i.e. quality assurance of internet medicine, has not yet taken place.

BiM offers service providers, cost bearers and providers of internet medical services a platform in direct cooperation with the medical profession. We are committed to promoting internet medicine in Germany with all parties involved, and in particular with the valuable know-how and independence of licensed doctors.

• Development of guidelines, standards and limits for the offering of Internet medicine.
• Quality certification for providers of medical information and services on the Internet.
• Networking of providers and doctors.
• Integration and negotiations with the relevant cost bearers.
• Concretisation of legal and reasonable possibilities by means of remote treatment.
• Improvement of medical care via Internet medicine.
• Preparation and monitoring of data protection backgrounds.
• Communication platform for all inspiration and developments in Internet medicine.
• Political influence on the evolution of Internet medicine.
• Exchange of expertise and preparation of information.
• Integration of users/patients.

The merging of health issues and the Internet is not only a sensible but also inevitable development, as can be seen from many international examples. The German health care system's path into the Internet requires close cooperation and open discussion between all players involved. The Bundesverband Internetmedizin (BiM) is to become a central platform in this respect.