The Academy for Cardiovascular Medicine and Healthcare Professions

1986: Establishment of the German Heart Centre Berlin.

1987: Just one year after the opening of the DHZB, the Academy for Cardio Technology was established. With the development and expansion of cardiac surgery in Berlin, the need for specialists to operate heart-lung machines grows. The DHZB lays the foundation for an extraordinary success story by establishing its own academy.

1987: In the same year, the DHZB establishes its own training center for nursing professions. The special challenges of intensive medical care for patients require qualified staff in-house.

1992: In addition to the training center, a separate nursing school is founded five years later. With this step, the DHZB enables the training of nursing staff for its own hospital and beyond.

2001: The CMR Academy is founded on the initiative of Prof Dr Fleck. As a subsidiary of the DHZB and with the cooperation of the German Society of Cardiology (DGK), an innovative training institute is created that achieves international visibility in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging after just a few years.

2002: At the start of the new millennium, a separate school for surgical assistants (OTAs) is also founded. Over a period of 20 years until 2022, numerous OTAs will be trained at the DHZB and prepared for a varied career in the operating theater.

2008: In collaboration with Steinbeis University, we are breaking new ground in the training of cardiovascular perfusionists. As an integrated degree program, participants now obtain a Bachelor of Science in Cardiovascular Perfusion after an optional third year. With this innovation, we are recognising the increasing complexity of the professional field and at the same time laying the foundation for graduates to gain further academic qualifications after completing their Bachelor’s degree.

2009: Further development in the field of cardio technology is complemented by a new simulation operating theater, which significantly improves practical teaching and simulation in our academy.

2009: Following our positive experience in the field of Cardiovascular Perfusion, we expand our cooperation with Steinbeis University to include the Physician Assistance study program. This new profession is already widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries in particular and enables healthcare professionals to gain further qualifications and take on delegated assistant medical activities in the medical service. This degree program therefore offers new professional opportunities for lifelong learning as well as possible solutions to the shortage of specialists in hospitals.

2019: On the basis of our positive experience in the field of cardiac MRI, the DHZB starts training in the field of echocardiography. As part of the “Echo Academy”, we now offer basic and advanced courses in accordance with DEGUM guidelines and can train participants on the basis of our broad experience.

2019: Given the scarcity of skilled nursing staff, the DHZB is starting to recruit international nursing professionals. In order to prepare them for the knowledge test (Kenntnisprüfung) and the recognition of their qualifications, a dedicated curriculum and familiarization concept is being developed that achieves above-average results in the recruitment of international nursing professionals.

2020: The reform of the Law on Nursing Professions also entails extensive changes for our nursing training program. The curriculum is being redeveloped and adapted to the new form of the nursing profession. At the same time, we are expanding our team to include nursing educators in order to provide the new generalist training in large parts of theoretical and practical teaching with our own team.

On 1 January 2023, the cardiac medical facilities of the DHZB and Charité will merge to form the German Heart Center of the Charité (DHZC). The merger of the hospital operations to form Europe’s most modern heart centre will also be accompanied by further development for the DHZB Foundation. In addition to the strategic and operational co-design of the DHZC, the foundation will focus on the training and further education programs of the DHZB Academy from 2023 and expand translational research and innovation funding to become a further pillar of the foundation.

Over the past 35 years, more than 3,500 trainees, students and doctors in continuing education have been trained at the DHZB. As part of the further development of the foundation, more than twenty educational programs, which were initially created independently, will be brought together under the umbrella of the “DHZB Academy”. The Academy will remain a close partner of the DHZC and will continue to involve its clinicians and scientists in the design and implementation of the training programs in the future.

As a specialized training center for highly qualified and technologically experienced medical personnel in cardiovascular medicine, the Academy makes a significant contribution to the recruitment and development of DHZC staff. In addition, participants from all over Germany and many parts of the world attend our specialized training programs in cardiovascular diagnostics and therapy. The Academy plans to expand its portfolio of educational programs and reach new target groups with the help of digital concepts. There are also plans to expand the existing simulation center for cardiac operations and the skills lab for nursing situations in the coming years and add modern applications, e.g. in the field of virtual reality.