Strategy and Growth

Since it foundation, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) has been one of the leading clinics in Europe. Based on the interconnection of medicine, research, and teaching, all employees of the UKE work hand in hand toward a common aim. Our goal is the health and well-being of our patients. It is for the benefit of our patients that we perform research. It is for them that we teach. And it is for them that we continue to learn.

We pursue a consistent consolidation and growth strategy: based on innovative ideas and concepts, we are already working on the cutting-edge medicine of tomorrow. In doing so, we invest our resources in a conscientious, targeted, and sustained manner. Based on our entrepreneurial activity, we generate space for development. The UKE focuses on its strengths which are supplemented by our partners’ competencies. Together, we achieve better results.

  • Raising our clinical profile – strengthening patient autonomy

    The patient is the focus of our work. We offer high-quality, complex, interdisciplinary medical services. The positive effects of such a specialization and concentration are reflected in the success of our centers. For example, the UHZ has grown to become the largest heart center in Northern Germany, while the well-renowned Martini Clinic is the largest center for prostate cancer in the world. The UKE maintains numerous cooperations with hospitals and practices.

  • Continuously raising our research profile

    In order to raise “Hamburg’s profile,” the UKE concentrates on its research focuses and areas of high potential. Furthermore, research, teaching and healthcare are to be increasingly interlinked in order to emphasize the strength and uniqueness of the UKE even more within the research environment of Hamburg’s metropolitan region. It is only at the UKE that research may be performed based on the guiding idea “from bed, to bench, and back”. At the same time, this means placing high ethical standards on this research.

  • Training based on standards of excellence

    The new model study course iMED fundamentally changes the training of future medical specialists and also sets new standards abroad. This study course allows the medical faculty at the UKE to meet the national and international competition for the best students head on. Like the Hamburger Auswahlverfahren Medizin, which is used in license by other German university clinics now, iMED may also develop into an export product as domestic and foreign inquiries have shown.

  • The most attractive employer

    University medicine places special requirements on all employees at the UKE. During recent years, the UKE has consistently promoted its human resources and equal opportunity policies which focus on the employee. Their pursuit is to continue for us to prevail in the domestic and foreign competition for the best talent in healthcare, research, and teaching.

  • Utilizing opportunities of the metropolitan region – growing in a sustained fashion

    The UKE pursues a consolidation and growth strategy. The highest priority is placed on the continuation of the path of financial solidity by expanding economic research, teaching, supply, administration, and communication structures. Even though the metropolitan region is characterized by dynamic competition, the UKE enjoys great opportunities for continued sustained growth due to its specific profile as an integrated academic institution as well as an outstanding center for maximum care and state-of-the-art medicine. The network strategy and the utilization of new technologies such as telemedicine, or the further development of the electronic patient file are effective tools for penetrating existing markets and opening up new ones.

  • Sustained modernization of the infrastructure

    The UKE continuously requires adequate and reliable funds for investments. The modern infrastructure that the UKE has developed during recent years is a central success factor for the services provided in research, teaching and healthcare. Therefore, buildings, medical technology, and IT must be maintained at a high level, while deficits must be resolved. Even though investments were subsidized to a high extent in the past, there is still an investment gap at the UKE. It must be closed over the medium-term in order to safeguard the successes at the UKE, particularly the balanced economic result, and to keep its healthcare, research and teaching at a top international level in the future.


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