Universitätsklinikum Essen

The UK Essen is the largest university hospital in the Ruhr region cantered at one location and thus the “hospital of the Ruhr metropolis”. Each year, over 50,000 patients are treated as inpatients in the 1,300 beds and 195,000 as outpatients. More than 6,000 experts from a wide range of disciplines in 27 clinics and 24 institutes guarantee excellent and interdisciplinary diagnostics and therapy at the cutting edge of research. For years, Essen University Hospital has successfully concentrated on the main areas of oncology, transplantation, cardiovascular, infectiology/immunology, and translational neuro- and behavioural sciences. The West German Tumour Centre Essen (WTZ), a Comprehensive Cancer Centre based on the American model, has been recognized as a top oncology centre in Germany since 2009. Today, the WTZ is Germany’s largest tumour centre.

The Network ActiveOncoKids (NAOK) is a large interdisciplinary network in Germany. The primary objective of NAOK is to enable access to exercise and physical activity during and after cancer treatment for children, adolescents and young adults. To achieve this aim, the Network offers exercise counselling for diseased persons and their families, exercise physiologists, caregivers at hospitals, and exercise facilities. It furthermore engages in research projects focusing on benefits, risks, and guidelines of exercise therapy in paediatric oncology. The Network members and steering group are located throughout Germany, and the coordination is located at the University Hospital Essen. The working group “exercise in paediatric oncology” coordinates the NAOK, performs exercise therapy during all phases of cancer treatment (in-patient, out-patient, aftercare) and conducts several national and international research projects with a focus on physical activity measurements, motivation, health-related quality of life and immunology.

In FORTEe, the UK Essen and the Network ActiveOncoKids will be involved especially in the dissemination phase of the project.