Management Board of the Heidelberg University Hospital
What topics occupied Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) in 2023? The members of the Management Board on an exciting and successful year for UKHD.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Jürgen Debus
Chairman of the Board
Chief Medical Director
(since July 2024)
Despite major challenges—not only in the healthcare sector—Heidelberg University Hospital has managed to stay on track and develop dynamically. 2023 was a remarkably successful year for Heidelberg University Hospital. In terms of the medical, scientific, and economic situation, we are in a better position than ever before.
In everyday clinical practice, doctors use AI to evaluate MRI images or plan radiation treatment for cancer patients, for example. AI can process the empirical values of thousands of individual images in a matter of seconds and is therefore now on a par with humans when it comes to the quality of image analysis. This saves us valuable time that we can devote to patients and their families. And that is our actual task.
Currently, we are focused on the planned merger with the University Medical Center Mannheim. We are convinced that this merger makes sense from a social, scientific, and medical perspective. After being rejected by the Federal Cartel Office, we are now applying for ministerial approval in cooperation with the state of Baden-Württemberg. Our goal is to jointly promote university and top-tier medicine, research and teaching, as well as Germany‘s status as a healthcare location. This merger process must be carried out prudently and with the involvement of the team.
Digitalization, artificial intelligence, virtual reality: These buzzwords not only dominate news and talk shows but are also a lived reality in some areas of patient care, research, and teaching at the university. In the coming years, we aim to achieve an even higher level of digital maturity. Heidelberg University Hospital and the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg use digital solutions to offer patients optimal therapies and to utilize the enormous amounts of data generated in everyday clinical practice for research purposes. The establishment of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim also creates immense potential in this field for the Rhine-Neckar region as a research and business location.
The high quality of medical care is also reflected in national and international rankings: Heidelberg University Hospital is consistently ranked among the world‘s top 20 hospitals and is number one in medical research in Germany. This shows the high level of recognition the hospital enjoys internationally. We are also proud of our outstanding medical students: We succeed in attracting the brightest minds to Heidelberg. In their final exams, they regularly rank among the best in their field.
We would like to thank all cooperation partners, supporters, sponsors, and friends of Heidelberg University Hospital for their outstanding cooperation. Together, we have achieved a lot. By means of this annual report, we would like to show you why we believe that we are well prepared for the future. The report offers a small glimpse into a large institution. We cordially invite you to take a look around!
Katrin Erk
Commercial Director
Deputy Chair of the Management Board
Almost 14,000 employees from 130 nations provide the highest level of care to seriously ill patients around the clock at UKHD. They have mastered this outstandingly well, even under the special challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. And even if it may seem a long time ago, at the beginning of 2023 we were still working under coronavirus conditions in the clinics and institutes. Over the course of the past year, we have succeeded faster than most other clinics in achieving normal patient operations at the pre-coronavirus level of 2019 with increasing patient numbers. The fact that UKHD relies on staff growth with excellently trained specialists even in times of crisis has paid off.
This contributed significantly to achieving an almost balanced annual result, despite high depreciation and amortization based on many of our own investments in modern buildings and infrastructure – measures that have not been sufficiently financed by the public sector for many years.
I would like to thank all employees for this incredible achievement and willpower. They are the pillars of the UKHD and the healthcare system, whose necessary reforms in financing, bureaucracy reduction and digitization must finally be initiated and whose implementation is not only central for us, but in particular for a functioning cooperation network and thus a broad regional care structure.
The hospital has made excellent progress in the areas of sustainability and climate protection. Plans are underway for photovoltaic systems on the roofs of the UKHD and the infrastructure for bicycles and electric cars is being expanded. A job ticket and free rental bicycles complement the options for environmentally friendly and health-conscious mobility. Developing the hospital sustainably and implementing the state‘s climate targets is a mammoth task that we can only achieve across all areas. I would like to thank the many employees who are involved in this in a variety of ways. Their commitment is worthwhile, it is in the interests of our common future.
Prof. Dr. Michael Boutros
Dean
Heidelberg University‘s Faculty of Medicine can look back on a very successful year in 2023. With the extension of three Collaborative Research Centers of the German Research Foundation, the recruitment of nationally and internationally outstanding scientists and Germany-wide leading results in teaching, the Faculty is well positioned for the coming years.
Since its foundation in 2022, the Health + Life Science Alliance has gained momentum over the past year. With new cross-institutional programs, high-technology platforms, the recruitment of young scientists and the planning of a new building, we are expanding the space for successful basic science and clinical-translational research. The alliance of the seven major research and healthcare institutions aims to develop the Rhine-Neckar region into a leading international biomedical technology cluster. It also strengthens the existing bridges to our non-university partners such as the DKFZ, the EMBL, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and the Central Institute of Mental Health.
The unique environment in the field of medicine and life sciences also helps to retain and attract excellent scientists. Among the numerous grants, awards and prizes, of which I would like to highlight the Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation, show that new colleagues find a stimulating environment in Heidelberg. Professor Rohini Kuner was awarded the most prestigious research prize in Germany, following the Leibniz Prize for Professor Stefan Pfister last year. In addition to other prizes, several highly competitive grants from the European Research Council (ERC) were also acquired. I am also very pleased that the Heidelberg Medical Faculty and UKHD 2023 have succeeded in recruiting outstanding individuals for key positions: Professor Luise Poustka has taken over as Head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor Christoph Michalski as Head of Surgery, Professor Sandro Krieg as Head of Neurosurgery and Professor Oliver Zivanovic as Head of the Women‘s Clinic.
I would particularly like to take this opportunity to thank the former Dean, Professor Hans-Georg Kräusslich, who, together with his team, has ensured that the Faculty is well positioned for the coming years. We will continue this in the new Faculty Board: through the further development of the research strategy, through new programs for early career researchers, through further development of teaching and through our efforts as part of Heidelberg University for the next phase of the Excellence Strategy.
Yvonne Dintelmann
Director of Nursing
Interprofessional collaboration, flat hierarchies and a wealth of ideas developed and implemented by the nursing staff – for me, this describes the Heidelberg spirit that I encountered in this excellently positioned hospital when I took office in April 2024. I would like to take this opportunity to express my special thanks to the nursing service managers and managers of the nursing and functional services under the leadership of my predecessor Edgar Reisch. They have succeeded in bringing the innovative strength, efficiency and attractiveness of nursing care in Heidelberg to the forefront of university medicine. And we are continuing along this path.
With around 4,600 employees, nursing is the largest professional group and forms the foundation of excellent care for seriously ill patients. In times of skills shortages and demographic change, it is all the more important to use innovative approaches to recruit new nursing staff – including from abroad. One success story here is the Triple Win program run by the Federal Employment Agency and the German Association for International Cooperation, which is used to place international nursing staff with employers in Germany in a fair and transparent manner. The UKHD has been participating since 2017 and has already recruited 350 nurses via Triple Win. The UKHD‘s cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Mannheim and with Goethe Institutes in the countries of origin supports language acquisition and integration in Heidelberg. Some of the nursing staff have already successfully completed specialist further training and are themselves teaching new colleagues from Germany and abroad as practice instructors.
The continuous development of the Academy for Healthcare Professions with its training and further education courses and degree programs is also an elementary component in actively counteracting the shortage of specialists. On the one hand, we are advancing the academization of nursing on the Heidelberg Medical Campus, and in 2023 the UKHD School of Midwifery was converted into the coordination office for the practical phase of the midwifery degree course. On the other hand, we will continue to expand further training opportunities for non-academic nurses and support the development of managers.
Prof. Dr. Markus Weigand
Deputy Chief Medical Director
(since July 2024)
At UKHD, the best possible medical care for our patients is always at the center of all our actions. In the highly complex environment of a supra-maximum care provider, our interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams work continuously to improve patient safety. We pursue a strategy that encompasses all professional groups, enabling us to avoid adverse events as much as possible. In a university setting, where the boundaries of what is medically possible are pushed further every day, maintaining a respectful, appreciative, and as autonomous as possible relationship with our patients is another matter close to our hearts. Thus, the well-being and safety of the patients entrusted to us are always the focus of our activities.
Anyone driving through Neuenheimer Feld sees excavators, cranes, and heavy trucks. The campus is constantly changing, as the university hospital, the state, and generous donors invest together in the infrastructure for the medicine of tomorrow. The proven concept of the Heidelberg Clinic Ring, whose implementation began in the 1980s with the construction of the Head Clinic, is being consistently further developed.
Currently, we are working intensively on the full integration of the Heidelberg Kidney Center e.V. into UKHD. The new building of the Hopp Children‘s Tumor Center KiTZ Heidelberg, located between the Children‘s Clinic and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), is progressing successfully. Starting in 2025, UKHD and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) will unite research and clinical practice under one roof there to develop and implement even better therapies for children with cancer.
For everyone working on the campus, this means a work environment that is interconnected and supportive, paving the way for successful interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration – for our patients.
Former members of the Management Board
Prof. Dr. Ingo Autenrieth
Chief Medical Director Chair of the Management Board until June 30, 2024
Edgar Reisch
Director of Nursing
until March 31, 2024
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.
Hans-Georg Kräusslich
Dean until September 30, 2023