David D Martin

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. med..; Pediatrics, Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetology, Oncology and Hematology
• Full Professor and Chair of Medical Theory at Witten/Herdecke University

Background Screen media use in early childhood is associated with increased risk for health and developmental problems. A preventive intervention during a regular examination in pediatric practices aims to prevent dysregulated screen time by children under three years of age. This protocol describes a process evaluation with the aim of understandin...

Background Children's current screen time is well above current recommendations and is associated with many health consequences in the first years of life. Methods The complex intervention study “Screen free till 3” introduced parent education to a regular examination of 6-month-old children in outpatient pediatric practices. Pediatric practices w...

Introduction An open dialogue between parents of children with cancer and medical staff about the benefits, risks, and interactions of complementary medicine used during cancer treatment is essential to enhance treatment safety and efficacy. However, both parents and medical staff often lack sufficient knowledge and willingness to engage in such di...

BACKGROUND Febrile seizures, although typically benign, can cause significant emotional distress for parents. Their diverse etiological risk factors underscore the need for further research. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) offers a cost-effective and timely method for real-time data collection. The FeverApp, an EMA-based registry for fever ma...

Introduction Today, accessing information on health issues is easier than ever. However, the flood of information can make decision-making difficult. Information can influence the intention for an action, yet the action often remains unpredictable. It is unclear if there is a relationship between the intention behavior gap and the wish for medical...

In the first years of life, increased screen media use is presumably associated with health consequences and developmental impairments. “Screen‐free till 3” is a prospective Germany‐wide randomized intervention study, started in May 2022 with a duration of 3 years. In the intervention group, 2581 pediatric practices received stickers, which were sy...

Aim This systematic review of clinical trial evidence aims to determine whether homeopathy can effectively relieve symptoms and reduce antibiotic use in patients diagnosed with otitis media (OM). Methods Seven databases and four trial registries were searched. Eligible studies included randomised- and non-randomised-controlled-trials in patients d...

Objective In this observational study, we determined the distribution of mHealth applications (apps) in Germany using data from the FeverApp registry. Methods The registry data were processed to assess general monthly trends in app distribution, and a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model was decomposed to investigate time series...

Substudy of FeverApp Register: usage of a health app for parents (Ecological Momentary Assessment - EMA) and effects on consultation frequency in pediatric practices

Background: Considering the analogies between the disruption in ecological systems and in individuals, the concept of integrative medicine is extended to the One Health concept and integrative medicine is introduced as an innovative model for guidance/correction in patients' therapy as well as in ecological realignment. Summary: The specific ele...

Most experts agree that, on average, young children spend too much time with screen-based media. At the same time, screen media have a more adverse effect on children’s health than on adults. The newly published guidelines coordinated by the Association of Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) provide information on the health consequences...

Parents' and siblings' role model motivation and function could play an important role in positively influencing both their own media behavior and that of family members. To investigate whether parents and siblings consciously take on this role model function, their intentions were being evaluated with a standardized questionnaire before a 6-week m...

Background The selection of data elements is a decisive task within the development of a health registry. Having the right metadata is crucial for answering the particular research questions. Furthermore, the set of data elements determines the registries’ readiness of interoperability and data reusability to a major extent. Six health registries s...

Introduction: European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) has been gaining increasing interest in the field of oncology as a clinically relevant adjunctive treatment in many forms of cancer. In the field of phytopharmacology, harvesting time is pivotal. In the last century, a form of metabolomic fingerprinting based on pattern formation was proposed as a...

Policymakers and practitioners are increasingly focused on achieving health equity and meeting the specific health needs of diverse populations, including vulnerable groups such as children. To address these challenges, the Fever App for Parents has emerged as a solution to guide parents through the complexities of managing fever in their children...

This research focuses on the impact of Tango Argentino (TA) on the dynamics of relationships in couples who are dealing with Parkinson's disease (PD). In particular, it investigates Neuro Tango Argentino Training as an intervention to explore its effects on participants and the potential benefits for the well-being and relationship dynamics of coup...

In der kindlichen Entwicklungsphase bringen chronische Erkrankungen wie Diabetes mellitus Typ 1 (T1D) besondere Herausforderungen mit sich. Betroffene Kinder und Jugendliche sind mit zusätzlicher Musikerziehung möglicherweise besser in der Lage, sich diesen Herausforderungen zu stellen. Über den Zeitraum von 4 Jahren (2017–2020) wurden in einer mul...

Introduction Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) belong to the group of keratinocyte carcinomas (KC). Actinic keratosis (AK) is a precursor lesion of cSCC. The incidences of cSCC, BCC and AK are currently strongly increasing. Different standard therapies exist for these conditions but are not always applicable or...

Few measurements of fatigue and quality of life have been performed during neoadjuvant chemotherapy of early breast cancer. This study evaluates fatigue and quality of life experienced by early breast cancer patients during neoadjuvant chemotherapy and their association with different clinical parameters. Fifty-four stage I–III patients’ responses...

Germany has a long tradition of health libraries. From their origin in monasteries, they became centres of knowledge and education. In modern times, this tradition has been continued by the Central Library of Medicine. In addition, as a specialty in Germany, special collection areas and special libraries that focus on one topic were established. Th...

Introduction: The introspective experience of cancer patients using mistletoe therapy has received little scientific interest, although it is crucial for a holistic understanding of this therapy. This study contributes to patient-centered research and treatment by documenting the subjective experiences of individuals undergoing mistletoe therapy....

Background: People with type 1 diabetes (t1d) are fasting with the intention to slow down or halt health deterioration or to improve their health condition.First promising results of research in this field are available. According to current fasting guidelines fasting is only recommended under medical supervision. Objectives: To survey the number o...

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, differences in responses and behaviors were observed among specific groups. We aimed to address how people with an anthroposophical worldview behaved with respect to the perception of burden, fears, and wellbeing. As it is an integral part of their lifestyle and convictions, we addressed the influence of won...

Introduction Vaccinations are considered to have a large impact on disease control, hence a multitude of vaccines in infancy is recommended. Retrospective studies suggest a possible relation between timing, kind or number of vaccines given in the first year of life and the subsequent incidence of allergic diseases. It must be clarified whether a ca...

Objectives Mobile health applications could be means of educating and changing behaviours of their users. Their features and qualities determine the sustainability of use. The FeverApp with two main features of information and documentation is a research-based app. In this observational cohort study, to evaluate the influential predictors of use,...

Feedback of data quality measures to study sites is an established procedure in the management of registries. Comparisons of data quality between registries as a whole are missing. We implemented a cross-registry benchmarking of data quality within the field of health services research for six projects. Five (2020) and six (2021) quality indicators...

Background Short children born small for gestational age (SGA) often have low muscle mass. Studies on maximal isometric grip-force (MIGF) observed lower muscle strength in these children. In contrast to MIGF, jumping is an everyday muscle activity for children. Our hypothesis was that GH treatment would cause an increase in jumping strength. So, we...

Background: COVID-19-related lockdowns and homeschooling have imposed a substantial burden on school-aged children and parents. Waldorf education is a reform-educational concept. Little is known about the situation of German Waldorf families under pandemic conditions. Methods: A cross-sectional, online, parent-proxy survey was conducted regardin...

Febrile infections are common in childhood. Children can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, but their course is milder than in adults. So far, a comparison between febrile infections with a positive or negative Corona test with the Omicron variant is missing. The data used are from the FeverApp registry, which collects parent-reported data on febrile inf...

The FeverApp registry is an ambulant ecological momentary assessment (EMA) model registry focusing on research of fever in children. Verification of EMA reliability is a challenge, due to absence of other source data. To ensure the reliability of EMA data, 973 families were invited to reassess their documentation in a survey. The survey contained q...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Fieber gilt als wichtige Abwehrreaktion des Körpers bei Infekten und spielt im Kindesalter eine große Rolle. Unter Eltern sind immer noch Angst und Unsicherheit im Umgang mit Fieber weit verbreitet. Als Aufklärungsinstrument für Eltern können Informationsbroschüren zum Wissen und Umgang mit Fieber im Kindesalter dienen....

Parents' confidence regarding their children's fever is a key factor in its management and there is still unnecessary anxiety and associated antipyretic overuse. The FeverApp application collects naturalistic real-time data on febrile infections and educates parents on fever management. Logistic regression examined the associations between (1) pare...

Background: The FeverApp registry uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to collect parental data on pediatric fever for scientific research. The mobile app FeverApp educates parents on safe fever management and serves as a fever diary. Objective: The focus of this study was to evaluate the completeness and concordance of the EMA-based Fever...

Although proctoclysis (enema) is a historically proven, safe and cost-effective rehydration method that needs little training for users and can effectively replace intravenous hydration in different care settings, it is an uncommon choice for hydration in children with fever and is often missing in official guidelines. To evaluate the usefulness of...

Background: Most often, fever is still treated by lowering body temperature with medication. In complementary and integrative health care, patients are supported during illness to use the positive effects of fever. Accompanying applications from the field of hydrotherapy are often used for gentle cooling, but there are references that warming in fe...

Background Fever in children is a major problem in pediatric oncology. Usual management leads to immediate antibiotic and antipyretic therapy, although there is consensus that antipyretic therapy should not be utilized with the sole aim of reducing body temperature. Increased body temperature during fever appears to be an effective modifier in term...

Purpose Cancer-related fatigue remains one of the most prevalent and distressing symptoms experienced by cancer patients. Effective treatments for cancer-related fatigue are needed. The objective of this meta-analysis is to determine the impact of mistletoe extracts as a pharmacological treatment for the management of cancer-related fatigue. Metho...

SummaryIntroduction: Quality of care for immi-grants and their direct descendants (I/DDpatients) with diabetes is unsatisfactory.Causes include socioeconomic status,language deficits, and cultural influences.Poorer quality of care may also affecthealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) in chil-dren and adolescents (C/A patients) withtype 1 diabetes m...

Background Integrative medicine is used frequently alongside chemotherapy treatment in pediatric oncology, but little is known about the influence on toxicity. This German, multi-center, open-label, randomized controlled trial assessed the effects of complementary treatments on toxicity related to intensive-phase chemotherapy treatment in children...

Observational research benefits from a rich methodological foundation of registry development and operation published in international and national guidelines. Metadata management is an essential part of registry implementation based on concepts of data elements and value sets. The metadata from six German registries revealed vastly divergent inter...

Background: Gender issues have received increasing attention in clinical research of the past years, and biological sex has been introduced as a moderating variable in experimental pain perception. However, in clinical studies of acute pain and gender, there are conflicting results. In particular, there are limited data on the impact of gender dif...

Background Fever in children is a major problem in pediatric oncology. Usual management leads to immediate antibiotic and antipyretic therapy, although there is consensus that antipyretic therapy should not be utilized to reduce body temperature. Increased body temperature during fever appears to be an effective modifier in terms of viral replicati...

The BoneXpert method for automated determination of bone age from hand X-rays was introduced in 2009 and is currently running in over 200 hospitals. The aim of this work is to present version 3 of the method and validate its accuracy and self-validation mechanism that automatically rejects an image if it is at risk of being analysed incorrectly. Th...

European Pharmacopoeia monograph 2371 describes the production of homeopathic preparations. A specific efficacy of these preparations in high dilution levels is questionable in view of basic scientific principles. There is empirical evidence for such effects, for example in a Lemna-intoxication bioassay published 2010. To test the replicability and...

Introduction: Patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery often suffer from severe radicular postoperative pain leading to the prescription of high-dose opioids. In Integrative Medicine, Hypericum perforatum is known as a remedy to relieve pain caused by nerve damage. Objectives: This trial investigated whether homeopathic Hypericum leads to a reducti...

In living cells, redox potential is vitally important for normal physiological processes that are closely regulated by antioxidants, free amino acids and proteins that either have reactive oxygen and nitrogen species capture capability or can be compartmentalized. Although hundreds of experiments support the regulatory role of free radicals and the...

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Hintergrund Verschiedene Studien berichten über das Stresserleben von Krankenhausmitarbeitern während der COVID-19-Pandemie, aber auch vor der Pandemie fühlten sich viele ärztliche Klinikmitarbeiter durch ein hohes Arbeitspensum oder unklare Vorgaben emotional erschöpft. Methoden Kognitive Bewertungen und das Stresserleben von ärztl...

Background Compresses are one of the water treatments of Traditional European Medicine and are used for a variety of indications in patient care. Calf compresses are used for gentle fever reduction. However, little is known about the origin and effectiveness of calf compresses. Aim We aimed to provide an overview regarding the evidence of the effe...

Die Sorge um einen schwereren Verlauf vom Omicron bei Kindern hat sich bisher nicht bestätigt, im Gegenteil. Von der Süddeutschen Gesellschaft für Kinder-und Jugendmedizin kam dazu letzte Woche folgende Stellungnahme unter anderem für das Bayerische Staatsministerium für Gesundheit und Pflege: ….Die Meldungen aus den Medien, dass dabei in Südafrika...

The FAIR Guiding Principles do not address the quality of data and metadata. Therefore, data collections could be FAIR but useless. In a funding initiative of registries for health services research, trueness of data received special attention. Completeness in the definition of recall was selected to represent this dimension in a cross-registry ben...

Introduction: During the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, several medical students volunteered as assistants in hospitals, public health departments, and other healthcare services to support and substitute permanent staff. The underlying motivations to help are unclear. Therefore, we aimed to assess medical students' motivations and influen...

Excessive use of screen media is a global public health issue and especially extensive screen exposure during very early childhood. This review was conducted in order to update previous reviews on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce screen time. An electronic literature search was carried out in MEDLINE, COCHRANE LIBRARY and CINAHL for art...

Würde die Impfung keinen Schutz bieten, hätten wir über 80% Geimpfte auf den Intensivstationen. Die Impfung schützt teilweise vor schwerer Erkrankung. Das ist für einen Teil der Bevölkerung relevant. Intensivstationen werden immer voller mit Menschen die schwer an COVID-19 erkrankt sind. Der Ruf nach schnellen Lösungen wird immer lauter, insbesonde...

Zusammenfassung. Fragestellung: Untersuchungen unterschiedlicher Disziplinen zeigen einen Zusammenhang zwischen baulichen Besonderheiten von Krankenhäusern, insbesondere psychiatrischen Krankenhäusern, und verschiedenen Parametern des Genesungsverlaufs von Patienten und Patientinnen. Welche architektonischen Aspekte im Praxisalltag relevanter sind...

Many experts in the USA speak strongly in favor of vaccinating 5-11 year old children against Sars-Cov-2. Why is this, and is it justified?

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Die Machbarkeit und Modellhaftigkeit eines App-basierten Eltern-Registers ist aufzuzeigen. Methodik Die FeverApp als interaktives Erfassungsinstrument und die zugrundeliegende Datenstruktur des Registers werden vorgestellt. Die bisherigen Rekrutierungsbemühungen werden veranschaulicht und die Temperaturverteilung, so...

Objectives Fever is a common symptom among children. Parental lack of knowledge about fever could cause anxiety and lead to unnecessary measures to subside fever. There is little evidence about German parents’ knowledge and their fever management. Design A cross-sectional study using a paper-based questionnaire. Setting 16 kindergartens in Saarbr...

Zusammenfassung Einleitung Zur Reduktion von Wartezeiten im ambulanten fachärztlichen Bereich sind seit dem 23.01.2016 Terminservicestellen (TSS) aktiv. Diese sollen Facharzttermine mit Dringlichkeitsüberweisung telefonisch innerhalb von vier Wochen an gesetzlich Versicherte vermitteln. Die Studie präsentiert erstmalig eine Analyse des Buchungsverh...

Introduction Divergent attitudes towards fever have led to a high level of inconsistency in approaches to its management. In an attempt to overcome this, clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the symptomatic management of fever in children have been produced by several healthcare organizations. To date, a comprehensive assessment of the evidence...

Hintergrund: Die Frage der COVID-19 Impfung von Kindern und Jugendlichen wird gegenwärtig diskutiert. Methode: Durch iterative und systematische Auseinandersetzung mit der Literatur wurden Aspekte gesammelt, die kollektiv und individuell geklärt werden sollten, bevor Impfungen für Kinder empfohlen werden. Diese Aspekte wurden in einem Konsensverfah...

Background: Whether children (0-11 years) and adolescents (12 to 18 years) should receive COVID-19 vaccinations is a topic of debate. Methods: Through iterative and systematic engagement with the literature, aspects were collected that should be clarified collectively and individually before vaccines are recommended. These aspects were analyzed an...

What do we have to do today so that, in future generations, children can grow up healthy in body, soul and spirit? This is the basic question of the authors. This chapter is about inner doing, inner attitude and inner relationship. They play an important role even before birth and are the backbone of a healthy development. The authors put forward t...

Background Okoubaka aubrevillei is used in traditional West African medicine and in homeopathy for treatment and prevention of several gastrointestinal problems. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of repeated doses of two Okoubaka products (10 % ethanolic tincture, mother tincture (MT); 3rd decimal potency, 3X) on the microbi...

The FeverApp Registry is a model registry focusing on pediatric fever using a mobile app to collect data and present recommendations. The recorded interactions can clarify the relationship between user documentation and user information. This initial evaluation regarding features of participants and usage intensity of educational video, information...

Acute otitis media (AOM) is one of the most common reasons for consulting a doctor in childhood (particularly in early childhood). This paper addresses the question of how the therapeutic use of antibiotics and antipyretics can be reduced in AOM treatment, in both children and adults. The integrative approach of Anthroposophic Medicine (AM) describ...

Acute and acute recurrent rhinosinusitis are very common in both adults and children (1, 2). They are considered to be frequent complications of viral upper respiratory infection or allergic inflammation. As viral infections are the most common trigger (3, 4), antibiotics are not effective in most cases. Their use always needs to be balanced agains...

Pneumonia is a serious illness in childhood mainly caused by viruses or bacteria. Viruses were the only identifiable pathogen in 66% children hospitalized in the U.S. for pneumonia [1]. Unfortunately, differentiating viral and bacterial pneumonia remains difficult as neither a consensus nor a gold standard exists [2]. The Bacterial Pneumonia Score...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Bei Kindern- und Jugendlichen häufen sich Narrative über Beschwerden durch das Tragen eines Mund-Nasen-Schutzes (Maske). Weltweit existiert bisher kein Register für mögliche Nebenwirkungen von Masken. Methode Im Rahmen des www.Co-Ki.de Multi-Studienkomplexes wurde ein Online-Register aufgebaut, im dem Eltern, Ärzt*inne...

Aims/Hypothesis: Intermittent as well as prolonged fasting are receiving considerable attention and appear favorable in conditions like the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, rheumatic diseases and others. Fasting for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) is generally considered too risky. However, the ability and possibility to change from carbohydr...

Dietary intake: The intake of all food was documented by the participants per collection time in the dietary protocol. The energy supply of the respective foods and beverages was calculated in kcal. PRAL was calculated according to Remer and Manz [4, 5]. Measurements and laboratory analyses: Blood glucose and ketone bodies were measured daily at 4...

Introduction A comprehensive assessment of the recommendations made by clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on symptomatic fever management in children has not been carried out. Methods Searches were conducted on Pubmed, google scholar, pediatric society websites and guideline databases to locate CPGs from each country. Rather than assessing overal...

Nach Einschätzung des Gesetzgebers sind lange Wartezeiten auf Facharzttermine eines der großen Probleme für gesetzlich Versicherte. Um dem entgegenzuwirken wurden von den KVen betriebene Terminservicestellen initiiert. Die bisher vorliegenden Untersuchungen zu Wartezeiten beziehen sich auf Befragungen. In dieser Arbeit erfolgt erstmalig eine Ausein...

Background: Narratives about complaints in children and adolescents caused by wearing a mask are accumulating. There is, to date, no registry for side effects of masks. Methods: At the University of Witten/Herdecke an online registry has been set up where parents, doctors, pedagogues and others can enter their observations. On 20.10.2020, 363 docto...

Background: Narratives about complaints in children and adolescents caused by wearing a mask are accumulating. There is, to date, no registry for side effects of masks. Methods: In the context of the www.co-ki.de multi-study-complex an online registry has been set up where parents, doctors, pedagogues and others can enter their observations. On 20....

Starting from a personal situation of the author, whose 54 year-old friend is on the intensive ward with severe COVID-19, with a wife and two teenage children at home with mild COVID- 19, hospital visitor policies are discussed. The discussion starts from personal standpoints and then reaches out to include international literature on the matter. V...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund In Deutschland werden über 80 % der Kinder und Jugendlichen von niedergelassenen Kinder- und Jugendärztinnen und -ärzten (KJÄ) betreut. Diese haben eine spezifische Perspektive auf die COVID-19-Pandemie. Methode Zentrale Onlineerfassung von Fallzahlen, individuellen Fallbeschreibungen und Beobachtungen zu Infektion und...

The role of children in households, spreading SARS‐CoV‐2, may differ from measles or influenza, and therefore, these diseases are not directly comparable to COVID‐19. The psychosocial aspect of infection and quarantine for families and children suggests that fear of social stigmatization can lead to not disclosing the infection. The role of childre...

Assessment and management of children with growth failure has improved greatly over recent years. However, there remains a strong potential for further improvements by use of novel digital techniques. A panel of experts discussed developments in digitalization of a number of important tools used by pediatric endocrinologists at the third 360° Europ...

Background: Fever is one of the most common symptoms of pediatric consultations and its mismanagement is a health care burden. Guidelines on fever management are incoherent and data on fever management are still missing. This study protocol describes an app-based registry to evaluate the fever management of parents. Objective: The primary object...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2019/5365608.].

Aims/Hypothesis: Intermittent as well as prolonged fasting are receiving considerable attention and appear favorable in conditions like the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, rheumatic diseases and others. Fasting for people with type 1 diabetes is generally considered too risky. However, the ability and possibility to change from carbohydrate to...