Sharing knowledge

At the Evangelisches Diakoniekrankenhaus we regularly offer continuing education courses in internal medicine, gastroenterology and interventional endoscopy.

This training format is aimed at gastroenterologists in private practice and their assistant staff. It takes place several times a year here at our hospital. We prepare several interesting endoscopic interventions, which we perform live in the endoscopy rooms in front of the specialist audience present. The concept is that our colleagues from private practice can look over our shoulders, ask detailed questions and discuss the cases. The format is rounded off with a small symposium and a snack in our lecture hall.

A particular focus at the Evangelisches Diakoniekrankenhaus is the minimally invasive treatment of malignant diseases of the gastrointestinal tract using endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). With this technique, originally developed in Japan, early-stage tumours of the gastrointestinal tract can be removed in a gentle endoscopic procedure. This often makes a cure possible without major surgery.

In addition to scientific evaluation, passing on this innovative and demanding technique is a matter of particular importance to us.

The team led by Dr. Ingo Steinbrück and Christina Henninger regularly holds tutorials and hands-on courses at our hospital for advanced gastroenterologists and assisting staff.

In the tutorials, we provide insight into the technique during procedures on patients, which we perform together with renowned external experts in the endoscopy room in front of a specialist audience. In recent years we have regularly had the pleasure of welcoming leading national and international experts to our hospital, including Prof. Franz Ludwig Dumoulin (Bonn), Prof. Tsuneo Oyama (Nagano, Japan), Dr. Akiko Takahashi (Nagano, Japan) and Prof. Naohisa Yahagi (Tokyo, Japan).

Once a year we also hold an ESD hands-on training course, in which we teach advanced gastroenterology colleagues this technique on pig stomachs.

These formats are aimed at general practitioners and internists in private practice and include lectures on various general internal medicine topics.

Once a year, together with our colleagues from the visceral surgery department of our hospital, we host an interdisciplinary visceral medicine symposium. This format is aimed at gastroenterologists in private practice. Lectures are given on various visceral medicine topics from both an internal medicine and a surgical perspective. What makes this format special is its interdisciplinary approach, which is essential today for the modern treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

• Internal medicine quality circle: Colon carcinoma – current diagnostics and therapies: 18.05.2026
• ESD tutoring and hands-on course: 12.06.-13.06.2026

For further information, please contact the office of the Department of Internal Medicine.