The first Focus article in this issue covers European health monitoring and its associated system of indicators. The article compares German and European Union data on a number of chronic diseases. Five Fact sheets go on to describe in more detail the data for Germany on the 12-month prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, allergies, coronary heart disease and stroke.

The second Focus article details the health and care services provided to asylum seekers and refugees in Germany. It also demonstrates gaps in the data and areas that require more information, as well as the initiatives that have been established to improve the situation. The section entitled Concepts & Methods describes diabetes surveillance in Germany, which is currently being developed at the Robert Koch Institute. A further article in this section explains the methodology employed in the German Health Update (GEDA 2014/2015-EHIS). The GEDA survey was the source of the data used in the Fact sheets published in this issue.