About 700,000 patients per year are treated at the University Hospital Heidelberg. The Hospital is especially renowned for the treatment of cancer. A recent innovation in the care of cancer patient is the foundation of the National Center of Tumor Diseases in cooperation with German Cancer Research Center. The goal of NCT is an interdisciplinary collaboration between various clinical and basic science disciplines and the fast implementation of new and innovative therapeutic procedures. A good example for the Heidelberg's leading position in innovative cancer research and treatment is HIT. HIT utilizes scanned beams of heavy ions, like carbon ions, and is thought to be superior in the treatment of some cancers compared to normal photon radiation. The new facility at University Hospital Heidelberg is unique in the world. The HIT radiation beam is directed by a 600 metric ton gantry which is rotated to focus the beam. Despite this enormous mass the deviation of the beam is less than ½ millimeter. In order to achieve this accuracy the whole gantry has to be maintained at a constant temperature. The total cost of the facility amounted to more than 100 Million Euros.
Heidelberg University medical degree program, two years of basic science, followed by the first of the two steps of the German medical licensing examination, and four years of clinical studies, has undergone a fundamental reform in 2001: From 2001 on, all medical students at Heidelberg University, University Hospital Heidelberg pursue a reformed six-year-long course named "HeiCuMed". This degree course is an adapted version of the Harvard Medical School curriculum. Undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs of Heidelberg University Medical School have played a fundamental role in Heidelberg being awarded "University of Excellence" status by the German Universities Excellence Initiative.
University Hospital Clinics
Most of the University Hospital Clinics are located on the Science and Medicine Campus Im Neuenheimer Feld, while some Clinics remain across the River Neckar in the Altklinikum Bergheim. In total there are 15 University Hospital Clinics:
Centre for Orthopaedic, Unfallchirurgie und Paraplegiologie
Thoracic Clinic
In addition – though legally not belonging to the University Hospital Heidelberg – the following act as clinics of the University Hospital of Heidelberg:
Notable researchers and physicians affiliated with the Research Cluster Heidelberg in recent time
Markus Büchler, surgeon, professor of medicine at Heidelberg University, renowned for pioneering works in surgery of pancreas,
Hugo Katus, cardiologist, professor of medicine at Heidelberg University, developed the Troponin T test,
Bert Sakmann, professor at Heidelberg University and an Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg,
Harald zur Hausen, from 1983 until 2003 served as a chairman and member of the scientific advisory board of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and professor of medicine at Heidelberg University.
