University Hospital Cologne
Cologne, Germany 
Head of the Department
Prof. Dr. Gereon Fink
Department of Neurology
Department of Neurology at University Hospital Cologne fulfills top university tasks in patient care, academic teaching, and science. The department offers inpatient care for all kind of neurological diseases requiring inpatient treatment and in addition to the outpatient department with general neurological consultation hours and the 24-hour emergency service, special rare disease consultations are also offered at the department. In addition to the normal wards, the department has its own neurological intensive care unit and a supra-regionally certified stroke unit for specialized care.
The department of neurology also specializes in various kinds of diagnostic techniques such as electrophysiology with electroencephalography, evoked potentials, neurography, electromyography, electronystagmography, and posturography, extra- and transcranial Doppler/duplex sonography, neuropsychology, functional imaging. All other imaging procedures including interventional angiographies are performed in the Department of Neuroradiology in the Institute for Diagnostic Radiology or in the Clinic for Nuclear Medicine.
The department works in close cooperation with the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience 3 at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Metabolism Research in Cologne and focuses on the following areas:
- Clinical and experimental stroke research including functional recovery and neurorehabilitation
- Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation
- Neuroimmunology and neuro-oncology
The Department of Neurology at University Hospital Cologne is specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of:
- Friedreich’s ataxia
- Multiple system atrophy
- Parkinson’s disease
- Neurogenic orthostatic hypotension
- Postural tachycardia syndrome
- Dementia
- Epilepsy
- Huntington's disease
- Multiple sclerosis
Studies, doctorate, habilitation
- 1982 - 1989 studies of medicine in Cologne
- 1989 PhD, Cologne (summa cum laude)
- 1999 Habilitation, Düsseldorf
Professional background
- 1989 - 1992 assistant doctor, Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research
- 1993 - 1995 Neurological Clinic, University of Cologne (Prof. Heiss)
- 1992 - 1993 Clinical Research Fellow, Dept. of Neurology & MRC Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK (Prof. Frackowiak)
- 1995 - 1997 Clinical Research Fellow, Institute of Neurology & National Hospital for Neurology, Queen Square, London (Prof. Dolan)
- 1997 - 2000 Resident Physician, Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf (Prof. Freund)
- 1998 - 2005 AG Cognitive Neurology, Institute for Medicine, Research Center Jülich
- 2001 - 2004 Senior Physician, Neurological Clinic, University Hospital Aachen (Prof. Noth)
- 2002 - 2004 C3 - Professorship for Cognitive Neurology at RWTH Aachen
- 2004 - 2006 C4 - Professorship for Neurology - Cognitive Neurology, RWTH Aachen & Deputy Director of Neurology at Aachen University Hospital
- 2005 - present Director, Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Research Center Jülich
- 2006 - present W3 - professorship for neurology, University of Cologne Director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Neurology, University Hospital Cologne
Activities in academic self-administration (selection)
- 2002 - 2006 spokesman for the DFG-funded clinical research group KFO - 112 on “Attention Disorders and their Therapeutic Influencing "
- 2002 - 2008 coordinator for neurological research in the Brain Imaging Center West, BMBF-funded competence center for functional Imaging in the clinically oriented neuroscience
- 2003 - today member of the Scientific and Technical Council of FZ Jülich
- 2008 - 2011 member of the Scientific Advisory Board, University of Cologne
- 2010 - today spokesman for the DFG-funded Clinical Research Group KFO - 219 "Basal ganglia - cortex - loops: mechanisms of pathological interaction and therapeutic modulation "
- 2011 - 2012 President of the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology
- 2011 - 2013 First Vice Rector of the University of Cologne
- 2015 - 2019 Vice Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne
- 2017 - 2018 President of the German Society for Neurology
- 2017 - today member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation
- 2019 - today Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne
Awards, grants (selection)
- 1983 - 1989 scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation
- 1992 - 1993 Otto Hahn scholarship from the Max Planck Society
- 1995 - 1997 European Traveler Fellowship of the Wellcome Trust, UK
- 2003 Science Prize NRW of the Science Center NRW
- 2004 Pette Prize of the German Society for Neurology
- 2008 Hospital Innovation Award 2008
- 2009 Research Prize from the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation
- 2011 DGKN advanced training award
- 2015 Max Delbrück Prize from the University of Cologne
Publications
- Over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, Lancet Neurology, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Annals of Neurology, Brain, Journal of Neuroscience
- Average impact factor 5.5 h-index = 91 (Thomson ISI), 98 (Scopus), 115 (Google scholar)
- Total number of citations 34,877 (Thomson ISI), 38,762 (Scopus), 56,380 (Google scholar)
- Third party funding:
- Extensive third-party funding including 2 DFG-funded clinical research groups, 3T MRTomograph, personal third-party funding> 4.5 million euros (without structure-promoting third-party funding)
Clinical focus:
- Stroke & Early Rehabilitation, Neurological Movement Disorders, Cognitive Neurology &
- Dementias
Scientific focus:
- Stroke & neurorehabilitation; Movement Disorders & Deep Brain Stimulation; Neuromodulation:
- transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current application
Department of Neurology
Receive an offer for Treatments
