[Patients' competences. What do patients need to know and be able to do?].

Patients today are rarely patient. More and more they want to be--and should be--responsible partners to their doctors and participants in healthcare policy. However, even though recent health reforms offered some incentives in this direction, the basic requirements are still lacking. One area that is woefully neglected is the furthering of the patients' competences. These are described as fourfold: competence in dealing with one's own disease and its symptoms; relational competence in the interaction between patient and doctor; social competence in cooperation with fellow patients, e. g., in self-help groups; and democratic competence to participate in formulating healthcare policy. The question is asked in which organizations and training measures these competences have already been developed. The text concludes with the call for a patient academy network operating nationwide.