The German Center of Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) was founded in 2011.
It is the Goal of the DZHK to achieve further progress in the area of cardiovascular diseases. The patient-oriented, interdisciplinary research with large studies, cohorts and biobanks gets more and more important in this context. The DZHK offers researchers the opportunities to conduct such research projects. It provides a framework where they can jointly develop and implement their Research ideas and put them into practise, faster than before. The most important aim of the DZHK is to make research findings available for all patients in Germany and to push forward therapy as well as diagnostics and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
28 institutions at seven locations all over Germany are bundling their strength into developing a common research strategy. The federal government provides 90 percent of the funding and those federal states, in which the member institutions have their registered Offices, the remaining 10 percent. The DZHK is organized as an association, which has regulated its operating procedures in the articles of the association.
The DZHK is focused on translating new approaches in cardiovascular research into clinical practice as fast as possible in order to improve diagnostics, prevention and therapy of cardiovascular diseases. This mission is of major clinical and economic importance, because cardiovascular diseases will continue to increase as a result of the rising numbers of metabolic disorders (adiposities, diabetes) and the demographic change.
Three main topics of particular importance for patients and the health care system are in the focus of the DZHK:
- Prevention and therapy of heart attacks
- Prevention and individualized therapy of cardiac insufficiency
- Prevention of sudden cardiac death
At the University Medical Center Mainz, four people have the DZHK-status Principal Investigator, eleven have the status DZHK-Scientist and twenty are members of Young-DZHK (DZHK-Young-Scientists).