When Prof. Christian Klink was appointed head of the Clinic for General and Visceral Surgery at the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus Speyer in the summer of 2020, this announcement received a great deal of attention in the professional world. Because with this appointment, a particularly experienced physician who had already held several senior management positions - and who has enormous expertise in surgery of the entire abdominal cavity - was recruited.
For decades, the Clinic for General and Visceral Surgery in Speyer has enjoyed a first-class reputation. When it came to appointing a new hospital director in 2020, the people in charge at the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus therefore knew that only an outstanding specialist could live up to this reputation. When Prof. Christian Klink was then recruited, everyone knew that with this exceptional specialist, the clinic is ideally positioned for the future - and is guaranteed to further enhance its reputation.
As a specialist in surgery and visceral surgery, who also has the additional title of Special Visceral Surgery, Prof. Klink heads the clinic as Chief Physician. In addition, the oncological centre, which is also known far beyond the region, and the colon cancer centre, which is certified by the German Cancer Society, are also under his leadership. This ensures that modern, holistic cancer therapy is offered at the Colon Cancer Center, which is always carried out under quality control and in accordance with guidelines.
Colon cancer specialist with interdisciplinary approach
What is always important to the specialist is his distinct interdisciplinary approach: several clinics and specialist departments of the Speyer Hospital are affiliated with the centres. The fact that the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus takes its role as a medical institution for the treatment of people in the region on both sides of the Rhine seriously at all times is therefore also evident from the close cooperation with resident doctors and other partners and service providers who are actively involved in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
As a specialist for colon cancer, Prof. Christian Klink was reviewed and approved by the independent institute OnkoZert. With this certification, the German Cancer Society ensures that patients really do consult proven specialists who meet all the criteria and professional requirements that the institute sets for organ cancer centres and oncological facilities. This means that all patients who are treated in Speyer for abdominal cancer benefit from the diagnostic and therapeutic range of services offered by the clinic director.
Pioneer in keyhole surgery
Prof. Christian Klink also fits perfectly with another approach of the clinic: as many therapeutic measures as possible are to be carried out with the smallest of interventions, i.e. minimally invasive. In this way, surgeries become much less painful, the body is less damaged and the convalescence period - and thus also the stay in the clinic - can be shortened.
The clinic in Speyer has long since played a pioneering role in laparoscopic surgery, i.e. keyhole surgery. This innovative method is considered the absolute standard of ultramodern medicine, and not only for the vast majority of surgeries. In the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus, under the direction of Prof. Klink, even the innovative 4-K technology is used. A giant screen is used to make the structures particularly well visible during the surgeries. The result: clinic director Prof. Klink and his competent team can operate with a precision that hardly anyone could have imagined just a few years ago. The technical equipment in the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus in Speyer alone shows how much medicine has evolved.
Style-defining: abdominal surgery through the navel
In these style-defining surgeries, a tiny camera is inserted through the navel into the - somewhat inflated - abdominal cavity, then small tubes and rods are used to operate. This technique is also used for hernias. Modern keyhole surgery also has a cosmetic aspect: Usually only tiny scars remain - also because Speyer generally uses self-dissolving sutures.
Even though Prof. Christian Klink has gained a great reputation primarily through oncological surgeries on the intestine, stomach, pancreas, esophagus and liver - his surgical spectrum is of course broader. He also has a great deal of experience in surgeries on the thyroid gland.
Wide range of services - also in academic studies
This experience is also clearly reflected in the career of the specialist. Before moving to Speyer, Prof. Christian Klink held various management positions at the RWTH Aachen University: In 2005, he started as a resident in the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, but moved to the Clinic for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery in 2010, only to take on a new task a year later and to expand his expertise in a lasting way - namely in the Clinic for Vascular Surgery. Finally, in 2014, he took over as Senior Physician in charge of surgery mainly of the esophagus and stomach at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery - and headed the interdisciplinary tumor conference of the "Euregional comprehensive Cancer Center Aachen" (ECCA).
The next step was to appoint Prof. Klink as head of surgery of the lower gastrointestinal tract - i.e. the small intestine, colon and rectum. Also from 2014, he coordinated the Aachen Stomach Cancer Centre, and from 2017 the entire Visceral Oncology Centre of the local clinic. He was also head of the Visceral Medicine Study Centre and a member of the Department of Surgery at the Medical Centre of the University of Maastricht. Most recently, he served as Senior Consultant at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Medicine at the RWTH University Hospital in Aachen.
A new, exciting era of highly specialised care began in Speyer in the summer of 2020. The existing connection to the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg will also be further expanded at the highest level - as will the connection to the University Medicine Neumarkt a.M. Campus Hamburg (UMCH), which functions as an academic teaching hospital and thus also underlines the academic aspect of the new director. Prof. Christian Klink has long since proven that he is a good fit for Speyer: Both staff and patients are equally enthusiastic about the new hospital director.