The ACHD Centre at the DHZC

The ACHD Centre in the Department of Congenital Heart Desease at the DHZC is one of the leading ACHD centres worldwide. We support and treat patients with congenital heart defects from their teenage years through to adulthood. All modern diagnostic and imaging procedures are available to us.

One focus is the highly specialised care of ACHD patients with complex heart defects and severe heart failure Heart failure. We also have particular expertise in the care of ACHD with cardiac arrhythmia, pregnant ACHD patients and patients with pulmonary hypertension in connection with a congenital heart defect.

Thanks to the close cooperation within the DHZC, especially with the Department of Congenital and Pediatric Heart Surgery, the Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, the cardiological clinics and the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, we are always able to offer the latest and most innovative interventional and surgical procedures (including assist devices and transplants) at the highest level.

For transition and psychosocial support, we work closely with the Psychocardiology at the DHZC.
​​​​​​​We work closely with the other Charité centres to treat all non-cardiac diseases.

Intensive research is essential in order to continuously improve the care of our ACHD patients. One pillar of our research is clinical studies covering the entire spectrum of ACHD medicine. Current focal points are the treatment of heart failure in ACHD the significance of non-cardiac diseases and ACHD in old age.

Prof Oktay Tutarel is a member of several national and international steering committees of ACHD specialist societies. We utilise this diverse network to conduct studies with international cooperation partners, e.g. on the topic of pregnancy in ACHD. We also work closely with the National Register for Congenital Heart Defects an the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects. Our goal is to enable better diagnostics and therapy as well as optimal care for ACHD.

Student teaching is very important to us. We actively participate in the teaching formats of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin's model degree programme in human medicine. Clinical traineeships and internships are also possible in our ACHD centre by arrangement. It is also possible to write a doctoral thesis at our centre.

The ACHD Centre is a training centre for additional training in "Special Cardiology for Adults with Congenital Heart Defects (ACHD)". We are authorised to provide further training for the entire period of training. This takes place in a structured programme and is open to both paediatric cardiologists and cardiologists.

Close cooperation with regional and national patient organisations is a matter of course for us. We regularly organise joint events.