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Article History

Received: 9 January 2025

Accepted: 15 April 2025

First Online: 24 April 2025

Declarations

:

: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.During this study, no sensitive patient data was gathered or clinical tests performed. This is a strictly anonymized survey of a total of 5,164 German general practitioners. Therefore, in the course of our verbal inquiry, the Ethics Commission of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, informed us that approval by an ethics committee was not necessary for a study that does not involve patient data. The legally prescribed cases in which an ethics vote must be obtained in the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, concern clinical trials within the scope of the Medicines Act (§ 40–42 AMG) and the Medical Devices Act (§ 19–24 MPG) as well as projects that fall under the provisions of the Radiation Protection Ordinance (§ 24 and 92), the X-ray Ordinance (§ 28a) and the Transfusion Act (§ 8). None of these points apply to the present study.Written informed consent for participation was obtained from all participants before the start of the study. The respondents received information about the aim and purpose of the study and were informed that it was in accordance with the existing data protection standards. Furthermore, it was made clear that the data will only be used for scientific purposes.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.