Medicine and the city - Vienna is a centre of medical excellence

From the legendary “Vienna School” from Empress Maria Theresia’s times to the latest treatment methods and leading research institutions: Vienna enjoys worldwide renown for its achievements in medicine.

While heart failure is the main topic of this year’s cardiology congress in Vienna in early September, the city’s hospitals are proud to hold a special world record: it takes only 80 minutes on average from the diagnosis of a severe heart attack to the life-saving operation. “Top quality treatment is the rule and not the exception at Vienna’s General Hospital (AKH), and it is available to all people in Vienna and the neighbouring regions. It is not least due to this fact that we hold a leading position in Europe,” says Prof. Christoph Zielinski, deputy director of the AKH and internationally renowned pioneer of oncology.

Many physicians and scientists successfully contribute to the city’s reputation as a city of medical excellence, developing new vaccines and immunotherapies at the Campus Vienna Biocenter or working on novel technologies regarding the emergence of cancer at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research. Both the world’s first transplantation of the smallest heart pump currently available and the first neurological surgery for a thought-controlled artificial arm in Europe were recently done at Vienna’s General Hospital. And the AKH was also at the centre of attention when a heart valve was first implanted on a beating heart without opening the patient’s rib cage.

When over 30,000 cardiac specialists come together for Europe’s biggest cardiology congress in Vienna, they are guests of a city that can look back on a great and famed tradition and remains one of the world’s leading centres of medical research and practice today. This tradition began with the era known as the first Vienna School of Medicine in the middle of the 18th century. It was a time not only of new scientific discoveries but also of a fundamentally new attitude to medical care. Some of the greatest figures in medical history were working in Vienna in the early 20th century: Nobel Prize laureates like Karl Landsteiner (1930) who discovered the blood groups, Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1927) and Robert Bárány (1914) as well as the famous surgeon Theodor Billroth and Clemens von Pirquet, a pioneer of allergy research, made Vienna a leading city of medicine.

New Health Centre in Vienna

A new centre of innovation and research for medical diagnostics and prevention will be set up in close proximity to Vienna’s AKH by 2009. In addition to research activities it will also offer additional training and education opportunities thanks to the cooperation of the Vienna Medical University with John Hopkins University and the Harvard Medical School.

City of congresses

MessegeländeWienNeu, the new Vienna trade fair centre, will host the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Europe’s biggest congress will be held at the Austrian capital for the fourth time already. “We are excited about coming back to Vienna,” says ESC president Kim Fox.

The annual congress of radiologists further supports Vienna’s position as one of the world’s leading conference cities. The members of the European Society of Radiology (ESR) have been meeting in the Danube city for 13 years. The next congress, with around 17,000 participants from 94 countries, will be held at Austria Center Vienna from 7 to 11 March 2008.

See also: New health center in Vienna

Links

Research in Vienna Campus Vienna Biocenter Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research Vienna General Hospital Reed Messe Wien Austria Center Vienna European Society of Cardiology European Society of Radiology