Health services research in psoriasis--the German approach.

insurance funds and other parties involved in the health care sector have realized the need to obtain specific data on health services provision. The task of health services research is to investigate the reality of health services provision under everyday conditions (German Medical Association 2005). Health services research has established itself as the third pillar of health research – along with biomedical basic research and clinical research. In order to provide a picture of the state of health services provision in Germany, it is necessary to obtain sufficient upto-date national data on the German health care system. Though the development of effective health services research is now regarded as essential, our knowledge of the state of health services provision in Germany is, in some cases, still only rudimentary, even in the case of some of the most common diseases. This is especially true for skin diseases.