Participants
asplenia
ASPLENIA
Eligible were patients aged 18 years or older, with anatomic asplenia, a health insurance plan with AOK Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany’s 5th largest health insurance that insures more than 4 million people) and at least conversational knowledge of German along with their respective physicians or other treating physician responsible for asplenia-related management. Patients who had received prior counseling at our institution were excluded. Eligible patients were identified by the AOK Baden-Wuerttemberg via a database search for OPS codes implying splenectomy (OPS code 5-413 splenectomy and sub-codes) and subsequently invited by mail to participate in the study. Patients who responded were asked to provide written informed consent and enrolled in their respective cohorts. Assignment to cohort was done based on prespecified time frames. Patients of the control group underwent splenectomy at least sixth month prior to study inclusion. Possible participants for the intervention group were identified on a biweekly basis by the health insurance provider and prospectively enrolled between February 2019 and January 2021. Upon enrollment patients were asked to provide their physician’s contact information and sign an exemption from confidentiality in order to allow for an exchange of information between the physician and the study center. Physicians whose patients consented to them being included in the study were subsequently contacted by mail and enrolled after having provided written informed consent. Both patients and physicians received a 30 € voucher upon study completion. The study was conducted as a single-center study at the University Medical Center Freiburg in cooperation with the insurance provider AOK Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.