Roland Hetzer MD, PhD

Prof. Dr. Roland Hetzer completed his cardiothoracic surgery training at the Hannover Medical School, Germany and at the Stanford University, California. He performed the first heart transplantation in Hannover in 1983 and the first pediatric heart transplantation in Germany in 1985. As the Medical Director and Chairman of the German Heart Institute Berlin (Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin) from January 1986 to September 2014, he and his team performed more than 1900 heart transplantations and more than 2300 implantations of mechanical circulatory support systems. Prof. Hetzer established a Department for Pediatric Cardiology at the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin, thus providing the conditions for establishing on of the largest programs in Germany of operations in congenital defects including research and development for this patient group. He has made numerous original contributions in the field of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery particularly in surgical treatment of end-stage heart failure and valve surgery. Presently, he still serves as the Medical Director of the Heart Institute in Cottbus and sees this patients in the Cardio Centrum Berlin.