David Leistner is apparently unstoppable.

The new director of cardiology at the University Hospital in Frankfurt got stuck in the elevator before the press event and had to free himself from his predicament on his own.

It only took him minutes to get out, his career seems to be proceeding at a similarly rapid pace.

After studying in Munich, working stations in Frankfurt and at the Berlin Charité including a doctorate, the 41-year-old doctor now wants to make the heart center of the Frankfurt University Hospital one of the leading addresses in Germany.

Monica Ganster

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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In the next year, the heart center is to move into new stations in Niederrad, the heart catheter laboratory is to be renewed, several new appointments are planned: "We want to become the most modern heart center in Europe," Leistner explains his plans.

He likes to talk about precision medicine, which is his guiding vision in cardiology.

Do not prescribe the same antihypertensive drugs for all patients, but consider individual circumstances and risk factors as closely as possible.

It's like a puzzle or a criminal case that needs to be solved during treatment.

In doing so, he focuses on examining risk factors that everyone carries genetically.

As an example, Leistner cites a specific genetic mutation that was discovered as an indication of a significantly increased risk of arteriosclerosis.

If it is proven, the doctor can easily decide that simple prevention consisting of more exercise, a healthy diet and fat reduction will no longer suffice, but that intensive drug therapy is required.

“This is the precision medicine that is already possible today.

I was instrumental in establishing this at the Charité, and it will also be available in Frankfurt in the future.” In Frankfurt, these are still primarily individual studies involving patients, but Leistner hopes to be able to offer this service as a standard in two years' time .

Patients should be cared for at home if possible

The investigation of genetic markers has already successfully established itself in cancer therapy.

The experience that chemotherapy, for example, does not help all breast cancer patients in the same way has led to research into the causes.

Today we know the genetic target structure of a tumor in which, for example, chemotherapy can be used successfully and meaningfully.

Leistner also wants to promote this finely balanced and targeted treatment in heart medicine.

In the heart center, joint consultations between cardiologists and surgeons should become the norm for all patients who are more seriously ill.

"And the treatment should not end at the hospital gate, but we continue it by connecting patients to a telemedicine center," says Leistner, outlining his vision.

Working together with resident doctors is just as important, because Leistner has already tested their expertise in relation to the living conditions of the patients and the joint preventive work to delay a deterioration in the patient’s health for as long as possible and to prevent an illness at the Charité .

The cardiologist always has the large demographic panorama in mind: In a society in which more and more sick older people have to be cared for by fewer and fewer younger people, medicine must also be geared towards new goals.

For example, that the mostly old heart patients are brought into a state in which they can still be cared for at home.

"We want them to feel better after our treatments and come home in a better condition."