Healthcare
INPATIENT CARE
With around 150 hospitals, Berlin-Brandenburg offers comprehensive, high-quality inpatient care. Berlin is home to Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Europe’s largest university hospital, which integrates patient care, medical research and medical education. Vivantes, Germany’s largest municipal hospital group is situated in Berlin as well as major non-profit and private hospital operators such as Alexianer, Johannesstift Diakonie, Helios and Sana.
The region continues to expand its academic healthcare landscape. The Medical University of Lusatia Carl Thiem (MUL) is currently being established as a new university medical center with a strong focus on health services research and healthcare digitalization. The Ernst von Bergmann Group includes hospitals in Potsdam, Bad Belzig, Forst and Brandenburg an der Havel as well as educational, social care, diagnostic and outpatient facilities.
OUTPATIENT CARE
Berlin has a dense and highly specialized outpatient care network. More than 10,000 registered physicians and psychotherapists provide outpatient healthcare services to the population in the German capital. On the other hand, more than 4,500 registered physicians and psychotherapists ensure outpatient medical care in Brandenburg.
As demographic change and population growth reshape healthcare demand, new models are emerging to improve access to care. In Berlin, innovative practice structures provide physicians with attractive employment opportunities while helping to ensure healthcare provision in rapidly growing districts.
In Brandenburg, ensuring access to healthcare in rural regions remains a key priority. New approaches are being developed to strengthen local healthcare services and improve accessibility across the state.
NEW CONCEPTS FOR URBAN AND RURAL AREAS
The German healthcare system is facing huge challenges such as demographic change and rapidly rising costs. The Berlin Brandenburg region is responding through integrated care models, digital solutions and stronger collaboration across professional and institutional boundaries. Increasing effort is put in prevention and health promotion.
Berlin is pioneering integrated health centers that combine medical care, prevention, health promotion and social support services under one roof. These centers particularly benefit people facing complex health and social challenges while helping to create more coordinated and patient-centered care pathways. Since 2023, the State of Berlin has supported integrated health centers in four Berlin districts.
Brandenburg is developing innovative regional care concepts that address the specific needs of rural populations. New health campuses, integrated care facilities and modern polyclinic models are being introduced to ensure sustainable healthcare provision close to where people live.
TELEMEDICINE
Telemedicine is becoming an increasingly important component of modern healthcare, helping to improve access, enable specialist consultation and support continuous patient monitoring.
A pioneering role in preventive telemonitoring is played by the Department of Cardiovascular Telemedicine at Charité, led by Professor Köhler. The department develops and tests telemedical product innovations while also caring for patients with chronic heart failure. Telemonitoring for heart failure patients has meanwhile become part of routine care. Since 2022, for instance Sana Clinics Berlin Brandenburg have operated a cardiology telemedicine center serving patients with heart failure throughout the region.
The TENEAM innovation project, coordinated by Charité, aims to improve neurological care in structurally weak regions of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania through telemedicine.
Charité’s Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine was among the first university medical centers in Germany to establish telemedicine at an academic level. The innovation project ERIC led to the creation of KAI Telemedizin in 2017, which now provides telemedical support nationally and internationally and conducts research projects.
In radiology, the BG Hospital Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin supports hospitals throughout Berlin, Brandenburg and neighbouring states by providing remote diagnostic services and consultations through a teleradiology network. In teleneurology, it offers video consultations for partner hospitals.
GENDER-SENSITIVE MEDICINE
Gender-sensitive medicine systematically incorporates gender-specific biological and sociocultural differences into disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Berlin-Brandenburg is among Europe’s leading regions for gender-sensitive and diversity-oriented healthcare. In 2003, Germany’s first interdisciplinary center for gender research in medicine was established at Charité, today operating as Charité Institute “Gender in Medicine” (GiM).
Further aspects of diversity, including age, sociocultural background and ethnicity, are increasingly incorporated into the concept of gender-sensitive health. In 2023, a research group led by Professor Stadler at Charité developed a Diversity Minimal Item Set to support the regular and standardized collection of data on gender and other diversity dimensions. The tool is now available in several languages and regions.
Numerous research groups, networks and innovation projects throughout the region are helping to shape the future of inclusive healthcare.
