certificated Website 2010
History of the Kerckhoff Clinic
In the 1920’s the German - American entrepreneur William George Kerckhoff travelled regularly to the spa town Bad Nauheim due to his heart disease. His generous donation of 1.7 million dollars made the establishment of a coronary research institute possible. The first director of this research institute was Professor Dr. Franz Groedel. He was immensely successful in his management of the institute and stayed there until his emigration to the USA in 1933. In 1951, the Max Planck Society took over the institute with a view to conducting high level research on coronary and circulatory disorders. In 1963, the Kerckhoff Clinic was founded in the immediate vicinity of the Kerckhoff Institute so that patients could benefit directly from the great medical developments achieved in the research institute. Beginning in 1972, Professor Dr. Martin Schlepper expanded the medical scope of treatment so successfully that the clinic came to specialise in acute treatment of coronary patients. This meant that by the end of the 1980’s the clinic had developed into a high-level center for cardio logical and cardio surgical treatment and already had an excellent reputation. The success story continued and in 1999 the "Rheumatology, Physical Medicine and Balneology" of the Justus-Liebig-University Clinic was added to the Kerckhoff Clinic. This rheumatology department is now the third largest section of the Clinic. To step up the quality of patient care even further, a new hospital building was finished in 2005 and, in January, 2008 the thoracic surgery treatment as the fourth section was added.
William G. Kerckhoff
Photo of Prof. Dr. Franz Groedel
Prof. Dr. Franz Groedel successfully managed the Cardiac Research Institute that had been founded by William G. Kerckhoff. He can be considered one of the founding fathers of the German Society for Cardiology as well as the American College of Cardiology.
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