The Bavarian state government has cleared the way to enable networking of the internationally recognized university hospitals and research institutions in Munich as a medical location. In a first step, the Rechts der Isar Hospital of the Technical University (TUM) and the German Heart Center are to merge as planned.
In the second step, the newly created TUM clinic will be brought under one roof with the second Munich university clinic, the Großhadern Clinic of the Ludwig Maximilian University. This alliance, called the “Munich Medicine Alliance (M1),” will also include the medical faculties of the universities and the Helmholtz Center.
“We want to create new structures that are forward-looking,” said Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) on Tuesday. The institutions remain legally independent, but their potential should be pooled, said the minister. “We believe that we are at the forefront, not only in Germany, but also in Europe when it comes to medical performance,” said Blume. “We want to profile Munich as the number one medical location in Europe.”
Medical research and practice, training and pharmaceutical research should come together. Further centers are to be created outside of Munich, for example for the prevention of infectious diseases in Würzburg. The pediatric oncology network should also be strengthened. At the university locations in Augsburg, Würzburg and Erlangen, the expansion of conventional medicine with complementary approaches is to be promoted.
Blume announced that the funding for the Bavarian Cancer Research Center, which is distributed across the six university hospitals in the Free State, will be increased by a third to 19.5 million euros.