Brief profile
The outstanding level of interdisciplinary cooperation provided by the Departments of Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery and Anesthesiology & Intensive Care Medicine makes us one of the leading cardiac units in Germany.
Every year, 1,500 open heart surgery procedures and more than 6,400 catheterization procedures are performed at the Heart Center's four catheterization laboratories. Our patients from the Berlin metropolitan area, the rest of Germany and from abroad all enjoy the benefit of expert medical and nursing care that is the result of 20 years of experience, and which is delivered by an excellent interdisciplinary team.
Our ambitions as a highly innovative healthcare provider mean that in addition to offering more conventional, established treatment options, we also offer minimally-invasive procedures that are particularly gentle on the patient. As collaborators on the prize-winning Fontane Project, we have also built considerable experience in the field of home monitoring, and currently have over 100 patients enrolled in a home monitoring program that extends from Bernau to Bahrain.
The Brandenburg Heart Center specializes in the following surgical procedures:
Cardiac surgery procedures
All cardiac surgery procedures are performed by highly qualified surgeons using modern technology, and include pacemaker implantation, heart valve surgery, bypass grafting and combined surgical procedures.
Catheter-based procedures
Our Heart Center has four catheterization laboratories that are all equipped with the latest technology, allowing us to perform a large number of catheter-based interventions in patients with heart disease. The minimally-invasive nature of these procedures usually makes them particularly gentle on the patient.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Johannes Maximilian Albes
Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Johannes Albes has been the Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery since 2003, and specializes in general surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery and cardiac surgery. Originally from Lower Saxony, he is an Extraordinary Professor (not holding a chair) at the University of Jena and has teaching commitments as part of the MBA in Health Care Management at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Brandenburg Medical School.
Between 1979 and 1985, Prof. Albes studied medicine at the Hannover Medical School, as well as spending time as a Senior Student at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Christian Butter
Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Christian Butter has been the Head of the Department of Cardiology since 2004, and also holds an Assistant Professor position (non-tenured) at the Charité University Hospital's School of Medicine, teaching in the Center of Internal Medicine/Cardiology. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Cardiology at the Brandenburg Medical School.
Prof. Butter played a significant role in setting up the Heart Center's transfemoral aortic valve implantation program in 2008. He also played an important role in setting up the percutaneous mitral valve reconstruction program, which was started in 2009 in conjunction with the MitraClip Registry. So far, Prof. Butter has treated a total of 120 patients using the MitraClip procedure.
Dr. med. Georg Fritz
Dr. Georg Fritz has been the Head of the Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Management since August 2006.
Following an initial four years of medical training in internal medicine and cardiology, his training in anesthesiology took him to London, Vienna and the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where he spent many years as a Senior Physician in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. He is also a specialist in Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pain Management.
Aside from his work in anesthesia and intensive care medicine, he also has a particular interest in transesophageal echocardiography.
Dipl.-KS Birgit Pilz (Head of Care Services)
Birgit Pilz has been the Head of Care Services at the Brandenburg Heart Center since 1993. She was initially based at our previous site in Berlin-Buch, until she moved to the Brandenburg Heart Center's new site at the Immanuel Hospital Bernau in 1998. After completing her nursing training at the Medizinische Fachschule (technical college) in Berlin-Buch, she spent the years between 1980 and 1986 working as a nurse and training to become a specialist nurse. In 1989, she started a degree in Nursing and Healthcare Management at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt University, Berlin), from where she graduated in 1993 with a Diploma in Nursing.
