People Teaching Research People Teaching Research
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PEOPLE TEACHING RESEARCH PEOPLE TEACHING RESEARCH Charité — excellence in health care CHARITÉ OFFERS OUTSTANDING HEALTH CARE. CHARITÉ’S STAFF MEMBERS DELIVER CLINICAL CARE, RESEARCH, AND TEACHING TO THE HIGH EST INTERNATIONAL STANDARD. ALL OF THEIR EFFORTS COMBINE EXCEPTIONAL EXPERTISE WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 1 Foreword 6 2 From ‘pest house’ to Europe‘s largest university hospital 8 More than 300 years of making people our purpose — insights into the history of Charité 9 Charité today — a leading health care organization with a social conscience 16 3 Medicine in all its facets — Charité‘s pillars of excellence 24 Highest standards of medical care 25 Nursing competence 28 Excellence in research 30 Cutting-edge concepts in teaching and learning 33 4 Health care priorities and research foci with international recognition 36 Neuroscience 37 Oncology 40 Regenerative therapies 42 Cardiology 45 Immunology 48 Genetics 50 5 Charité‘s strategic networks 52 Cooperative projects with industrial partners — from research innovation to practical application 53 Truly international 55 Charité Foundation — promoting innovation 57 World Health Summit — bringing experts together 59 Berlin Institute of Health — a model facility for translational research 62 6 Charité in numbers 64 Organogram 66 Content 5 1 Foreword Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, which recently marked its 300-year anniversary, Welcome to Charité. For over 300 years, within the social care arena. Aside from is now the largest university hospital in Europe. Throughout its history, Charité has been we have been attracting people and interest, being responsible for the well-being of its dedicated to research, teaching, and medical care. We hope that our brochure ’People — not simply from within the Berlin area and patients, Charité is also actively involved in the rest of Germany, but also from all over supporting victims of violence. In an effort Teaching — Research’ will provide an insight into the numerous facets of our organization. the world. Whether patients, physicians, to find solutions to current and future chal- researchers or nursing staff, people come lenges within the field of medicine, Charité to us because they share a faith in Charité‘s is also leading the current debate on develop- expertise and reputation, both of which were ments within the national and international built on modern treatment methods, inter- health care systems. nationally-renowned research facilities, and innovative teaching concepts. People are at Although intended to provide an insight into the center of everything we do. The well- the various facets that make up Europe‘s being of our patients is our motivation, and lar gest university hospital, this brochure can- we are not happy unless we know you and not claim to provide a true representation of your family members are comfortable. an organization of this size and complexity. We sincerely hope that, after reading this bro- Charité is not merely a center of excellence chure, you will want to discover our strengths in research, teaching and medical care. Within first-hand, and you are hereby cordially invited the wider Berlin-Brandenburg area, Charité to visit us at any time. also acts as a driving force within the health care industry, with many businesses choosing to position themselves nearby, and thus creating a large number of jobs. Charité also acts as a driver of innovation within the life sciences, a role regularly reinforced through its involvement in a diverse range of coopera- tive projects with industrial partners and non-university-based research organizations. Naturally, Charité also plays an important role 6 Foreword 7 From ‘pest house’ to Europe’s 2largest university hospital More than 300 years of making people our purpose — insights into the history of Charité Charité’s long tradition of excellence in medical care, research, and teaching dates back From ’pest house’ to a hospital for the poor Charité, which established itself as the city’s hundreds of years. Time and again, Charité’s outstanding staff members have pioneered new Rather than being driven by ambitions of clini- hospital for the poor, provided care to a wide scientific developments that have been, and continue to be, instrumental to modern medicine. cal excellence, Charité’s foundation (in 1710) range of patients, including soldiers, the poor, was a direct result of a general fear of the unmarried pregnant women, and prostitutes. ‘black death’, which was gradually advancing Overuse and overcrowding soon led to a Its history, stretching back more than three hundred years, has become intricately linked toward Berlin from Northeastern Europe. In marked decline in the quality of medical care with that of Berlin, Germany, and Europe. Having been shaped by political, societal, and social response to the threat of an epidemic, King available; modifications were necessary. influences and developments, Charité’s history, makes for a particularly interesting read. Frederick I, King of Prussia, ordered a ‘pest 1785 marked the beginning of construction house’ to be built outside the Berlin city walls, work on an imposing new building. A further Today, Charité is the largest university hospital in Europe, and enjoys an outstanding inter- which would serve as an isolation unit for extension to this building, which was con- national reputation within the fields of both medicine and academia. anyone infected with the disease. structed in the style of the late Baroque era, was added in 1834. Although the disease was highly contagious, Berlin managed to escape unscathed, leaving Charité’s first Golden Age a search to find a new use for the now During the same period, the delivery of superfluous pest house. Initially, the building medical care also became more professional. was used both as a home for the poor and Initially, army physicians were assisted by a military hospital for ill and injured soldiers. former patients — an arrangement that In 1726, a district medical officer by the name allowed patients to pay off the cost of their of Christian Habermaass suggested to the hospital stay and treatment. This situation king that the building could be converted into changed in 1832 with the foundation of a care home for the poor. As the move would Charité’s School of Nursing, which led to also allow army physicians to gain some the use of trained nursing staff. desperately needed clinical experience, King Frederick I agreed. As part of a move that Medical training also improved. Prior to 1810, would grant the institution tax-free status, and the transfer of medical training to the the king named the building Charité — after higher education sector, all of Charité’s phy - the French word for ‘compassion’. sicians were practice-oriented professionals 8 From ‘pest house’ to Europe’s largest university hospital 9 Selmar Aschheim Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben Emil Adolf von Behring Carl August Wilhelm Berends Ernst von Bergmann who relied on, and were guided by, building and renovation program. Con- Gustav Bergmann their own professional experience. The first struction lasted until 1917, and resulted in the August Bier training course offered by the newly-founded iconic red brick hospital complex that is still a Theodor Billroth University of Berlin (now Humboldt-Universi- characteristic feature of the Charité’s Berlin- Hans Erhard Bock Karl Bonhoeffer tät zu Berlin) attracted a total of 117 new Mitte campus, and which covers 133,000 Ernst Boris Chain students in its first semester. square meters (nearly 1.5 million square feet). Paul Ehrlich During the first third of the 20th Century, im- Emil Fischer Werner Forßmann The event also marked the beginning of proved treatment conditions allowed Charité Käte Frankenthal Charité’s triumphant successes within the to develop into a modern general hospital. Albrecht von Graefe field of research. Many famous researchers Since then, patients from all walks of life have Wilhelm Griesinger (including, at a later stage, female scientists) placed their trust in the hospital’s services Hermann Gutzmann Hermann Gutzmann jr. made groundbreaking discoveries while and expertise. Hermann von working at Charité — invaluable contributions Helmholtz th Herbert Herxheimer to both its growing international reputation Charité during the 20 Century — Otto Heubner and the history of modern medicine. The history reflected Rahel Hirsch years between 1840 and 1920 represent The hospital’s first Golden Age was followed Magnus Hirschfeld a first Golden Age in the history of Charité, by the darkest chapter in German history. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland and include the contributions of eminent The Nazi era spelled disaster for the German Robert Koch researchers such as the pathologist Rudolf scientific community and cultural life in Albrecht Kossel Friedrich Kraus Virchow, the physician Ludwig Traube, the general. Charité did not escape untarnished. Hans Adolf Krebs psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger, and the ‘Racial hygiene’ measures and ‘political Bernhard von internist Rahel Hirsch. The groundbreaking reasons’ led to the dismissal of at least Langenbeck Paul Langerhans discoveries by Nobel Prize laureates Emil 145 physicians and scientists across Charité, Ernst von Leyden von Behring, Paul Ehrlich, and Robert Koch including Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Fritz Albert Lipmann are also intricately linked with Charité’s Zondek, two internationally-renowned gyne- Leonor Michaelis Willoughby Dayton Miller history. In total, Charité can lay claim to more cologists