MHH President Professor Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner talks about the opportunities presented by the University of Excellence application.
Interview with MHH Professor Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner. Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
Madam President, MHH has thrown its hat into the ring and wants to become a University of Excellence. You have until 12 November to submit a concrete application. What has already happened and what tasks lie ahead of you now?
First of all, we were delighted to have the opportunity to become a University of Excellence. This means striving for excellence across the entire MHH, i.e. in research, teaching and healthcare as well as in training, administration and management. To achieve this, we first need to take stock, in particular by conducting a detailed analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks. We have tackled this and, following the application format, formed working groups for six areas, which are now developing the MHH's excellence profile. The working groups are composed of employees from all areas and hierarchical levels who can contribute to the respective sub-topics. In the teaching working group, for example, not only the dean of studies and professors are represented, but also nursing staff and students. The working groups are not isolated units, but bring in additional experts from the MHH to support them. Ideas and suggestions from all MHH employees and our students are also welcome and expressly desired. A coordination team consisting of the Presidium and deans is developing an overarching strategy for the MHH's orientation for the next seven years.
You once said that your vision is for MHH to be a national and international beacon for cutting-edge research, a magnet for the best talent, the best place to work and a guarantor of forward-looking healthcare. Is it necessary to become a university of excellence in order to achieve these goals?
The application now gives us the opportunity to put every area of the MHH to the test and take a close look at who we are, where we stand and where we want to go. We would have had to tackle this task anyway in order to make ourselves fit for the future. I see this opportunity as a gift that motivates us greatly. After 60 years, we are rebuilding the MHH, so it makes sense to rethink many things.
The term ‘university of excellence’ sounds a bit ‘research-heavy’ at first for a clinic that is also a supramaximal care provider. How do patients benefit from this?
The application is based on our three main areas of research, namely infection and immunity, transplantation and regeneration, and biomedical engineering and implants. Networks, synergies and unique selling points are also to be created in potential areas such as oncology and neuroscience and the cross-sectional areas of healthcare research/public health, gender medicine and digitalisation/AI. However, the focus is always on providing the best possible care for our patients. With the help of interdisciplinary excellence in research, teaching and training in medicine, we want to bring about significant innovations and improvements in healthcare for society as a whole.
►More on the topic of excellent research in the new MHHinfo (October issue, in German)
The application motto is INSPIRE HEALTH. What goals is the MHH pursuing with this?
Our overarching goals are prevention, prediction and precision medicine. This means preventing the development of diseases through prevention and education, detecting diseases as early as possible, minimising or controlling the consequences of disease, and offering diagnostics and therapy tailored precisely to the patient. In doing so, we want to provide impetus for future-oriented health research and care beyond the MHH. This also applies to global challenges posed by demographic change, possible new pandemics and climate change.
In the clusters of excellence, the new R-CUBE application, which focuses on transplantation and regeneration, was not approved. Is this a setback for the MHH and could it harm the application?
R-Cube has entered the main application phase and has been very well reviewed. The MHH is the largest national transplant centre with incredible excellence and expertise in this field. This has also been confirmed to us by the reviewers for R-Cube. Nevertheless, we have our work to do here: increasing innovation, daring to realign individual areas, attracting research networks and recruiting excellent scientists. Now it is time to further build on our strengths, identify and analyse weaknesses, and then take appropriate action. For me, this process is at the heart of the whole thing. We are very well positioned in many areas, have a successful model degree programme called HannibaL, and offer one of the best programmes for promoting young talent and careers – tailored to suit everyone from school pupils and doctoral students to future leaders in science and business. This makes us a talent factory for tomorrow's doctors and young scientists. However, we also need to address our shortcomings.
What are they?
Unfortunately, we do not yet have adequate equipment in the areas of computer science, digitalisation, AI and bioinformatics. Although we have been expanding our expertise in medical informatics for more than 50 years with the Peter L. Reichertz Institute, there is still some catching up to do – for example, in setting up comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage, digitising processes in research and teaching, and the future-oriented and secure use of AI. But we are working on it. The building infrastructure is also outdated, but the planned new building and the master plan for the existing campus offer a welcome prospect.
There are 15 places available nationwide for universities of excellence, for which ten existing and eleven new applicants are competing. How realistic are the chances of the MHH as the only ‘single-discipline university’?
I actually see it as an advantage that, as a single-discipline university, we can compete with a very focused approach to health and medicine. We integrate research, teaching and healthcare at the highest level on our campus. The staff and students I have spoken to feel involved and see this path as an enormous opportunity. We see our clusters of excellence as focal points that involve staff from all status groups and all areas of the MHH and thus have an impact on the entire MHH. This is much easier than for a comprehensive university, which has to integrate its special clusters across the entire spectrum of different faculties. We, on the other hand, have patients and medical research and teaching as major connecting themes. We want to create the conditions for excellence in all areas so that as many people as possible can benefit – regardless of whether they work, study or receive medical care here.
Interview: Kirsten Pötzke