Hybrid-OP is an "Excellent Place" 2018

Award ceremony at the Ministry of Economics, Labor, and Housing Baden-Württemberg: Johannes Horsch (second from the right) from the Mannheim project group for automation in medicine and biotechnology PAMB receives the honor from Alexander Tony Mast (left) from Deutsche Bank, Ute Weiland, Managing Director of the initiative "Germany – Land of Ideas," and State Secretary Katrin Schütz (right). (Source: Germany – Land of Ideas / Photo: Wolfram Scheible)

The hybrid operating room serves as an experimental field for researchers and medical technology companies. (Source: Fraunhofer IPA / Photo: Vanessa Stachel)

The hybrid operating room of the Mannheim project group for automation in medicine and biotechnology PAMB, which belongs to the Fraunhofer IPA, is one of the twelve "Outstanding Places" from Baden-Württemberg, recognized as winners in the "Germany – Land of Ideas" innovation competition.

On the grounds of the Mannheim University Hospital, PAMB scientists have established a fully automated operating and treatment room in recent years. This hybrid operating room serves both as an experimental field where medical technology companies and researchers develop and test new instruments, and as an effort to improve the medical care of cancer patients. In the future, patients should no longer have to go through many different wards in the hospital before, after weeks of anxious waiting, an oncologist prescribes the most promising therapy. Instead, in the hybrid operating room, the entire diagnosis and therapy – from computed tomography through biopsy to minimally invasive procedure – will be completed in one session.

Under the annual motto "Connecting worlds – strengthening solidarity," a highly qualified jury selected the hybrid operating room from nearly 1,500 applications as one of 100 outstanding projects nationwide. "We are very proud that twelve 'places' in Baden-Württemberg have emerged as winners from the competition and warmly congratulate the prize winners. This shows us how strongly people in the region are committed to their ideas and want to put them into action," said State Secretary Katrin Schütz on Monday during a reception at the Ministry of Economics, Labour, and Housing. "Baden-Württemberg needs this willpower and innovative ideas that combine new technologies and people, leading to new products and services. Only then can we remain a strong and future-proof economic location."

"Germany – Land of Ideas" is the joint location initiative of the federal government and the German economy, represented by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Since 2006, Deutsche Bank as a national supporter and "Germany – Land of Ideas" have jointly organized the same-named innovation competition and have annually honored "Outstanding Places in the Land of Ideas." The goal is to make innovations from Germany visible both domestically and internationally and to strengthen the performance and future viability of the location.