The Essen-Mitte Clinic
The multidisciplinary Essen-Mitte Hospital (KEM) serves as an academic teaching hospital of the University of Duisburg-Essen, one of the largest medical universities in the region.
The hospital was established in 1995 through the merger of two of the city’s oldest hospitals, one of which dates back to 1853. Since 2012, KEM has consistently ranked among the leading medical institutions in Germany.
According to the independent annual study conducted by FOCUS magazine, involving more than 2,000 hospitals across Germany, Essen-Mitte Hospital is ranked among the Top 100 hospitals nationwide and among the Top 10 in North Rhine-Westphalia. The hospital demonstrates exceptional expertise in the surgical treatment of cancers of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, colorectal region, and thyroid gland.
KEM is widely recognized as a center of excellence for adrenal surgery, having performed more than 2,600 minimally invasive adrenal procedures, as well as over 12,000 surgeries on the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
Core Areas of Expertise
The hospital’s key departments, highly rated in the FOCUS rankings, include:
- Department of General and Minimally Invasive Surgery
- Department of Medical Oncology, Hematology, and Palliative Care
- Breast Center
- Department of Geriatrics
- Department of Urology, Pediatric Urology, and Oncological Urology
- Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine
- Department of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology
Department of General and Minimally Invasive Surgery
More than 150,000 patients are treated annually across 12 departments within the KEM clinical complex. The Department of General and Minimally Invasive Surgery is led by Professor Martin Walz, under whose direction more than 2,500 procedures are performed each year.
Thanks to Professor Walz’s pioneering work, the department is recognized as a German center of excellence for minimally invasive surgery and a certified colorectal cancer center. Its main areas of expertise include:
- Minimally invasive oncological surgery
- Visceral and endocrine surgery
- Malignant tumors of the intestine and thyroid
- Minimally invasive surgery of internal organs
- Minimally invasive coloproctology
- Trauma and reconstructive surgery
Breast Cancer Center
In 2010, Professor Sherko Kümmel, together with Professor du Bois, one of the world’s leading experts in ovarian cancer, established the Center for Women’s Oncology at KEM. This center integrates the Department of Senology (Breast Medicine) and the Department of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology.
Over 15 years of development, the interdisciplinary breast unit at KEM has become not only the largest in Germany but also one of the largest worldwide, both in terms of patient volume and the scale of clinical research conducted.
Over the past decade alone, more than 78 clinical studies involving over 5,600 patients have been conducted at the Breast Cancer Center. The KEM team actively contributes to the development of national and international standards for the diagnosis, surgical management, and systemic treatment of women’s cancers.
In 2020, the center treated approximately 2,600 breast cancer patients and performed more than 2,500 surgical procedures, including over 600 breast reconstruction surgeries using implants.
The interdisciplinary Breast Cancer Center includes:
- Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery (including microsurgery)
- Breast Imaging (Radiology) Unit
- Department of Systemic Therapy (in collaboration with Gynecologic Oncology)
- Department of Integrative Medicine
According to published data, the Department of Integrative Medicine at KEM is comparable to the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA) in its scope and approach.
Department of Oncology and Hematology
The Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, led by Dr. Christian Müller, is one of the largest in Germany. Each year, approximately 3,000 inpatients and 11,000 outpatients receive treatment here.
This department is among the few oncology centers in Germany to have been repeatedly awarded certification by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) as a Designated Center of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care.
Advanced Technologies and Diagnostics
Essen-Mitte Hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. Advanced imaging systems such as MRI, CT, and PET-CT enable rapid and highly accurate detection of pathological changes.
Robotic systems, including the da Vinci surgical platform, support precise, minimally invasive procedures, improving patient outcomes and recovery times.
The hospital is conveniently located approximately 25 minutes from Düsseldorf International Airport, ensuring easy accessibility for international patients.