Highlights from Research
You can find three special research highlights of the Faculty of Medicine in the videos below. They are explained in layperson's terms in German – maybe the kids' explanations at the beginning will help start you off.
Emergency Telemedicine
Most often in emergency medical service, medical skills are not required but rather the ability to estimate and decide on a medical level. Emergency telemedicine is a concept in which an emergency physician is not present on site but is immediately provided with all of the information from the incident via a sound and imaging transmission as well as the real-time vital signs.
This provides supervisional support to the rescue team on site. As of the end of 2015, more than 3,400 patients had been diagnosed and treated through this unique system.
Aachen Artificial Heart
The Faculty of Medicine has a long tradition of conducting research in the field of mechanic circulatory support and artificial hearts. The new artificial heart "Reinheart" combines diverse innovative technologies: it is permanent, can be fully implanted, can be adapted to each patient's needs, and has anatomically adapted dimensions.
In the future, the artificial heart will be developed so that it is ready for clinical trials and thus enable patients with chronic heart disease to participate in communal life with the greatest amount of quality of life possible.
Molecular Signaling Pathways in Inflammation
When an individual is injured and has an infection, the human body passes along and processes information at the molecular level. Cells at the site of the damage communicate using defined messengers calls cytokines. In the liver, so-called acute phase proteins are produced that controll the inflammation.
Aachen researchers have successfully demonstrated that cyctokine interleukin 6 evokes an acute phase reaction of the liver. Additionally, they can clarify the signaling pathways in liver cells, in order to activate the genes in the acute phase proteins. This resulted in JAK-START pathway, which is now well-known and involved in a number of physiological and pathophysiological processes.