Berlin – Center of medical excellence

The US weekly Newsweek, together with global market research and consumer data company statista, recently published their 2024 ranking of best hospitals worldwide. Based on doctors’ recommendations and patients’ feedback Charité - the research-based university hospital in Berlin - took the sixth place worldwide and first place in Germany. More information about the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin can be found here.

In a study published in May 2018, researchers from the Institute for Experimental Pediatric Endocrinology of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have successfully treated patients whose obesity is caused by a genetic defect.The research at Europe’s largest university hospital in cooperation with the Clinical Research Unit at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) could result in developing a new drug and, in the future, help patients with genetic obesity. More information about the Charité can be found here.

Only a few hospitals in Germany use the innovative Intraoperative Electron Radiation Therapy (IOERT) in treating breast cancer. At Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch the electron radiation is applied directly to the residual tumor during surgery, a treatment proving highly effective. One minute of electron radiation can spare patients weeks of conventional external radiation therapy. More information about the Helios Hospital Group can be found here.

At just eleven days old, Lotte is probably the youngest patient ever to undergo successful heart surgery of such complexity without receiving blood from a donor. For the operation at the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin (DHZB), a heart-lung machine specially developed for newborns was used. For years, DHZB surgeons and paediatric cardiologists have been working on systems that do not require donor blood. This minimizes the risks of infection and intolerance, and allows patients to recover more quickly. The DHZB is currently the only heart centre worldwide to routinely use these systems. More information about the DHZB can be found here.

Neuroscientist and stroke expert Professor Ulrich Dirnagl has received the 2016 Berlin Science Award. The accolade pays tribute to his numerous research contributions in the field of stroke research, cerebral blood flow and cerebral imaging. An internationally renowned scientist, he heads the Experimental Neurology department at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and is the director of the Center for Stroke Research Berlin. The award is endowed with 40,000 euros. More information about the Charité can be found here.

Since December 2016, Berlin has had an ultra-modern biobank, giving the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) access to a storage facility that is unique in Germany. In future, it will be possible to store up to two million lab samples from patients in the new building at the Campus Virchow-Klinikum and make them available for research purposes. Together with the corresponding treatment data, the biological material will be collected, encrypted and stored. The collection will allow the progression and causes of diseases to be better studied in future, and new personalized therapies to be developed. More information about the Charité can be found here.