[Challenge prevention. From curative to preventive medicine-strategic and operational challenges].

The potentials of preventive medicine to reduce the costs of illness have been inadequately exploited to date. Even if there is still massive dissent regarding the legal setup of a prevention law, prevention should play a significantly higher role in practice. Clinicians and practitioners could use preventive medicine as another differentiating factor in the increasingly competitive healthcare field. Prevention as a new strategic business segment allows a directed reaction to the demands of the payment system and opens up enormous value-added potential at the same time. Those who seize the chance to integrate prevention into their medical services portfolio and into the structure and processes of their respective hospitals will develop an important competitive advantage for the future.