Faculty of Medicine

Cooperation and International Work

The Faculty of Medicine enjoys numerous collaborations with other disciplines at the University of Duisburg-Essen, further universities, and non-university research institutions and companies at a regional, national and international level. International cooperation is becoming increasingly important in view of the rising globalisation of science and academic education. Generally speaking, interdisciplinary scientific cooperation is initiated by the Faculty of Medicine or individual hospitals and institutes; however, it can often be based on the initiative of individual scientists.

The Faculty of Medicine has been cooperating with various universities in China since 1981, a notable example being the Transregio 60 collaborative research centre (SFB/TRR 60). Indeed, partnerships are in place with a whole host of universities and institutes in China, including Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Tongren Hospital Beijing, Zhongshan Hospital at Fudan University Shanghai and Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou. Every year, twelve students from the Faculty of Clinical Traineeships travel to these partner universities in Wuhan and Shanghai. In 2014, a cooperation agreement was established between the Faculty of Medicine and the renowned Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. Unlike the existing cooperations with partners in China, this relationship not only covers the field of infectiology, but also focuses on general surgery and diagnosis as well as therapy for breast cancers.

A further partnership has been in place since 1991 based on a cooperation agreement with Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy in Russia. Within the framework of a delegation trip, leading representatives from the Faculty of Medicine and Essen University Hospital agreed to expand their cooperation with the Medical Academy there in 2015. To this end, in addition to a more intensive exchange in terms of research and medical care, the partners now also cooperate across the healthcare professions, most notably including education, training and further education in nursing. This additional level of partnership serves to extend the scope of cooperation further still.

The Faculty of Medicine also has various connections to university partners in Japan. Together with experts from the university hospital in the city of Tsukuba, Essen’s scientists are conducting research as part of a cooperation agreement. One such agreement, for example, has been in existence since 2015 for an initial period of five years and involves the field of radiation therapy, or – more specifically – targeted cancer treatment. A further cooperation was established in 2014 with the Southern Tohoku General Hospital Group (STGHG) in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima. Here too, the focus is on radiation therapy. Similarly, as of 2015, yet another cooperation exists between Essen University Hospital and the company QD Laser, Inc., Kawasaki/Japan.

Further international cooperation:

USA

Cornell University Medical College & Mount Sinai Hospital, New York

Cornell University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York

University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville

France

Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, France

Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne

Centre Antoine Lacassagne (Tumour Centre), Nice

Mongolia

Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulan Bator