Essen University Hospital is a pace setter for first-rate medical services in the Ruhr metropolis. Here, scientific research is tightly interwoven with medical practice, directly benefitting patients who can be certain that they will receive the latest available therapies. In clinical trials, they receive innovative treatments from which patients elsewhere will not benefit until many years later once they become standard therapies everywhere.
 
Every year, about 153,000 outpatients and 44,000 inpatients are treated here. With its many top modern clinics, nearly three miles of roads, and 54 acres of land, the University Hospital is almost like a small city within the city. And it is one of the biggest employers of the region: more than 5,100 people work here in many different professions, from physicians, scientists, nurses and physiotherapists, to engineers and chefs.
 
We offer medical care with state-of-the art diagnostics and therapies that live up to the highest international standards. For many years now we have focused on three major areas of research and treatment: cardiovascular disease, cancer, and transplants. Our Organ Center, for example, has been a leader in the Eurotransplant region since 2008. The oncology focus is being enhanced by the construction of the West German Proton Therapy Center Essen. Proton therapy is a promising approach in cancer treatment particularly where sensitive regions of the body are affected. In 2009, we also created a place to go for critically ill patients who often can no longer be treated at other hospitals: the Center for Terminal Heart and Lung Failure. Essen University Hospital has also made a name for itself in many other fields outside its focus areas. Examples are the Perinatal Center, the Integrated Stroke Unit, and the Headache Center.
 
Cardiovascular
 
Cardiac diagnosis and therapy with the latest methods and techniques is at the forefront of this focus area. Treatment options range from simple vessel dilatation to complex heart transplants. Examinations of circulatory problems caused by thrombosis or embolism are also part of this field. In addition to traditional procedures, our clinicians employ advanced techniques such as ultrasound and cardiac catheters. All in all, ten different clinics and institutes are involved in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease.
Our patients benefit from the immediate connection between clinical work and systematic research that only teaching hospitals can offer. The integration of the clinics into cardiovascular research activities allows patients to be a part of medical progress as it is happening, allowing them to receive the latest and best possible treatments.
 
Oncology
 
Thanks to the advanced therapies made possible by research Research, the chances of curing cancer in particular have greatly increased in recent years. Improved surgical procedures, radiotherapy, drugs and targeted molecular treatment approaches?occasionally in combination with bone marrow or blood stem cell transplants?have yielded impressive progress in the treatment of our patients. Our bone marrow transplant clinic is the leader in Europe and the second largest in the world, next to that of Seattle.
In addition to modern tumor diagnostics, many clinics are also involved in treating stomach and intestinal ulcers, leukemia and lymphomas, as well as testicular, lung, and eye tumors. Collectively, these departments form the West German Tumor Center.
 
Transplants
 
In the field of organ transplants, Essen University Hospital is among the leading institutions worldwide. The hospital's experience in this area is particularly valuable, as it is one of only a few teaching hospitals that transplant all of the vital organs: kidneys, liver, pancreas, heart, and lungs. Liver transplants are particularly important. Eight of our clinics and four of our institutes are involved in preparing the organ recipient, receiving the donor organ, the transplant procedures, and the subsequent lifelong follow-up care of the organ recipient. Our research is another reason physicians have been able to give more and more people a second life in recent years.