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 195,000 outpatients and 53,000 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 6,000 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.