Details of programme

What will be your study and learning outcomes?

Successful completion of the master's programme will enable you to combine your technical knowledge with working close to patients. You will be able to grasp the complex and multidisciplinary interrelationships at the interface of medicine and technology and use them positively for patients in close collaboration with medical professionals.

You can become part of a highly specialised clinical team and accompany and perform technically supported, medical interventions. You will be equally in demand in industry. There you can design new product developments and optimisations to bring medical technology products such as prostheses and intelligent implants, as well as navigation systems for neurosurgery and orthopedics to the market.

What is the course syllabus and how long is the course?

During your master studies you will deal with future-oriented, innovative technologies, intelligent instruments and devices, new strategies and procedures in diagnosis and therapy.

The programme comprises 3 semesters of study in order to obtain the 90 ECTS (European Credit System) credits required for a Master's degree. In each semester there is the option to specialise in particular areas through elective modules. Similarly, topics for the research project and the Master's thesis are also chosen on an individual basis.

Detailed syllabus

1st study semester

Special areas of medicine (6 LP)
  • Surgical instruments and their clinical application
  • Surgical techniques practical
  • Priniciples of surgery of various organ systems
  • Specialised surgery (heart, thorax and vascular surgery, abdominal surgery, accident surgery, orthopaedics)
  • Conservative and surgical therapy operations
  • Technical medicine in the operating theatre
  • Pathophysiology of organ systems
  • Specialised pathophysiology in the application of medical technology
  • Special aspects of infections, hygiene, microbiology and sterilisation
  • "Operating Theatre Behaviour" operating theatre certificate
Specialised medicine and technology (6 LP)
  • Use and application of medical technology in specialist areas including: cardiology, oncology, urology, gynacology, ENT, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, diagnostic and interventional radiology, special emergency, anaesthetics and critical care medicine.
  • State-of-the-art special anaesthesiology and critical care medicine using life support systems and extra-corporeal circulation. Problems which arise in using these technologies and strategies to deal with possible complications.

 

Advanced Technical Medicine I (6 LP)

Intelligent Implants in Medicine and the Biologicalisation of Medical Engineering

  • Biocompatible materials
  • Aspects of microsystems technology/thin film technology
  • Encapsulation of intelligent implants
  • Electrophysiology (extracellular recording and stimulation)
  • Sensors, neuroprosthetics
  • Clinical cases (e.g. retina implants, cochlear implants, intracranial implants, implantable micropumps, tumour monitoring)
  • Biologicalisation strategies in medical technology
  • Example development strategies for biomaterials in cartilage/spinal disc repair
  • Instrument development for related operating theatre and applications technology
Clinical Trials (6 LP)
  • Statistical software R
  • Simple parametric probability models
  • Maximum likelihood estimator
  • Minimum distance estimators
  • Robust estimators
  • Exact and asymptotic confidence intervals
  • Bootstrap confidence intervals
  • Basics of statistical tests (type I error, type II error, p-value)
  • Important statistical tests for categorical and metric data (e.g. t-tests, rank tests)
  • Bootstrap and permutation tests
  • Post-hoc tests
  • 1-way ANOVA
  • Multiple testing
  • PIO/PICO
  • Clinical trial registries
  • Useful and reproducible biomedical research
  • "AllTrials Initiative"
  • Study reporting (Equator network)
  • Important reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, STARD)
  • Learning curve
  • Special features of studies (e.g., in surgery or drug trials)
  • Placebo and nocebo
  • Phases of pharmaceutical studies
  • Primary and secondary questions
  • Basic clinical trial designs
  • Randomisation
  • Blinding
  • Sample size and power calculation
  • Multiple primary endpoints
  • Group sequential methods
  • Intention-to-treat analysis
  • Types of missing data
  • Imputation of missing data
  • Meta-analysis
  • Evidence-based medicine

2nd study semester

Advanced Technical Medicine II (6 LP)

Specialised innovative technical medicine equipment:

  • Technology and functionality of robots, navigation systems, endoscopes, neurosurgical systems, intelligent instruments and implants
  • Particular problems and complications of such areas of application

Use of surgical and interventional methods using cardiac catheters, neuroradiology and other assistance systems as examples.

Specialised perfusion techniques:

  • Equipment for extracorporeal circulation, its function
  • Construction and materials in the field of oncology/ HIPEC
  • Assist devices, emergency services, intensive care medicine and in transportation
  • Particular problems and possible complications in this field of application
Diagnostics in Selected Fields of Medicine (6 LP)
  • Pathophysiology, diagnostics and therapy of various specialist areas of internal medicine
  • Special disease groups from haematology, oncology, nephrology, gastroenterology, cardiology and endocrinology with special consideration of the general disease theory
  • Pathophysiology, diagnostics and therapy of different surgical specialties: special disease groups from trauma and general surgery with special consideration of the general theory of disease
  • Additional rules of conduct in the clinical operative environment
Research project (6 LP)

In your independent research and development project, you will be allowed to work on a topic of your choice according to the rules of good scientific practice, produce a publication, and present your findings to an expert audience as part of your presentation.

Advanced Medical Technologies (6 LP)
  • Principles of membrane processes
  • Production of membranes/ modules
  • Mass transfer models in the artificial kidney
  • Mass transfer models in the artificial liver
  • Mass transfer models in the artificial lung
  • Basics of individual processes (machines,..)
  • Basic techniques of minimally invasive medicine (e.g. laparoscopy, endoscopy)
  • Technical requirements: Instruments, endoscopy, electrosurgery, navigation, manipulator systems, diagnostic systems.
  • Advanced optical methods in diagnosis and treatment

Elective modules

Elective modules in the first and second semester of study allow you to customise your course. Electives must be approved in advance by the Dean of Studies.

 

3rd study semester

In the final semester of your programme, you will complete your master's thesis. It gives you room for the development and/ or application of independent, application or research-oriented ideas.

Study and Examination Regulations