Europe Health had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Toft, the head of Alpha-Clinic Munich. Dr. Toft has a lot of prominent patients throughout the year and we wanted to know what contributes to this success.

See Interview in PDF-Format Europe Health: Dear Dr. Toft, your clinic for knee surgery is one of the most experienced institutions in Munich when it comes to international patients. You have also proved this during 2007. Let me ask you: What is necessary for a clinic to achieve such a sustainable success? Dr. Toft: To achieve a sustainable success, the hospital has to renew itself constantly. That applies to the spectrum of medical and surgical services as much as it applies to personalized care and patient comfort. Overall patient satisfaction has to be in the center of attention and the medical and surgical care has to be clearly outcome-oriented. To achieve this the clinic has to be willing to reinvest a large proportion of its profits in technology, human resources and a comfortable and patient-friendly ambience. Europe Health: You take care of prominent patients very often. Are you allowed to give us an example of a special case? Dr. Toft: It is true that we have had quite a number of high-ranking international patients. Most of them come through what we call the mouth-to-mouth “propaganda”, having heard of good results from other patients. After reporting on Prinz Bandar in one of the last Europe Health magazines, it is no secret that he was operated on by me and that the type of surgery he underwent was in contradiction to what most other doctors had told him before. Prince Bandar´s main objective was to be able to fully bend his knee so that he can pray in a normal way again. Knowing that with total knee replacements this would not be possible, the challenge was to achieve full flexion and full weight-bearing capacity with a unicompartmental replacement as opposed to a total replacement. Fortunately, everything went fine and now Prince Bandar is very happy with both knees. Europe Health: What personal skills does a doctor need in order to achieve these results? Dr. Toft: The first and foremost prerequisite for excellence in surgical care is specialisation on the doctor´s part. Most surgeons shun the consequence of limiting themselves to only one speciality, thinking that this must be boring. The truth is that a surgeon´s real satisfaction comes from the success that he achieves, not from doing a hundred different things. In order to get better in one´s speciality it is necessary for the surgeon not only to travel and attend scientific conferences but also to visit with other experienced surgeons to spy for some little tricks here and there, which will then make the difference in his expertise and skills and which sets him apart from the competition. Europe Health: What kind of new options will the future bring to the sector of knee surgery? Dr. Toft: The state-of-the-art techniques now used in the Alpha Klinik are good and unique for the time being but, of course, they will be supplanted by newer and less invasive and more effective ways of treating various pathologies. Here the most striking development includes tissue engineering from pluripotential cells gained from various tissue sources to repair and/or replace damaged or lost tissues and structures. While we have been offering cartilage-cell transplantations for over ten years now, the novelty is to use cells other than cartilage cells to achieve the same end result - the new cartilage cell. The same applies to meniscal and ligamentous tissues. Most of these developments are still "in the pipeline" but they will have reached clinical relevance within the next few years. Europe Health: What do you think about the growing efforts of Arab countries to close the gap quality between their and our medicine? Do you think that German patients will travel to Health Care City in 2010 to receive surgery there? Dr. Toft: We have seen a similar development with patients travelling to the new European destinations such as Prague or Budapest. In the final analysis the patient will go where he or she can expect to receive the most effective and the safest treatment and in that sense the world is becoming smaller all the time. We see more and more patients travelling to Singapore, Bangkok and New Delhi as new and good medical centers are mushrooming there. The same will apply to the new "health cities" springing up in the Middle East. If these centers can manage to attract excellent manpower, meaning first-rate surgeons and medical personnel, German patients may feel tempted to go there too, especially if the price is an issue. But I believe that the main objective is to prevent their own patients from leaving the country for less important interventions which could easily be offered locally. Europe Health: What does that all mean for German health care systems and their intentions to restructure? What do you think is important? Dr. Toft: The German health system remains to be one of the best in the world, but we cannot just stay idle and telling this to ourselves all the time. With this type of attitude we should not be surprized to be sidelined by other providers who have more flexibility in adapting themselves to the needs of catering to an ever more demanding international clientele. In that sense I see a lot of effort being made in providing language, transcultural and other assistance to international patients. Obviously, it has been understood that such patients donLt have to come to Germany and that there is more competition in the world than there used to be. This holds especially true of private medicine as there you have full control of your environment as opposed to the sometimes very rigid public health system. Europe Health: Is there something in the field of international medicine which is still undone and waiting to be done by you? Dr. Toft: What you are alluding to is some far-reaching vision of how to improve medical and surgical care in the future. As opposed to my vision back in the early eighties when I started with minimally invasive knee surgery and exceptional patient care and comfort, todayLs progress is chiefly driven by the laboratories in genetic engineering. As I am not a specialist in this field, I will have to wait for these specialists to give me a new and better armamentarium in dealing with all sorts of pathologies. To introduce such technologies in the fastest possible time, this will be our challenge in the near future. Europe Health: Thank you for giving us this interview, we always appreciate your experience.

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Prof Toft volunteers to help Children from Ethiopia, joining forces with Karl Heinz Böhm’s project “Menschen für Menschen. 20.02.2008. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, a Charity evening was organised by Mr. Florian Haffa for Karl-Heinz Böhm´s famous project “Menschen für Menschen “ which helped Ethiopia´s development schemes in the past 26 years.

Stem Cell therapy – by Prof. Juergen Toft 04.02.2008. The healing capacity of the stem cell therapy .

VI. Snow Arena Polo World Cup Kitzbühel 10.01.2008. For the first time Prof Toft and his team were present as sponsor at the unusual and enthralling spectacle of the Snow Polo Tournament that took place in the luxurious Kitzbühel valley in Austria.

Second international meeting of the International Association for Biologic Joint Reconstruction (IABJR) 27.09.2007. Biological solutions for cartilage regrowth in the knee and other joints is becoming a major subject at International conferences on the subject. Professor Juergen Toft’s clinical study and experience of 20 years in joint-preserving techniques helped create a better insight and understanding in the orthopedic community.

Back to the mountains 26.09.2007. Professor Juergen Toft helps 70-year-old Terrence White to go back to his passion of mountain climbing after surgery three years ago that preserved his knee joint through biological repair known as abrasion arthoplasty with osteotomy. Three years after this procedure Mr Terence White climbed Mount Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain.

Chief knee surgeon Professor Toft undergoes knee surgery in his own hospital. 24.08.2007.

Philippe Cocu to play for Al-Jazeera Abu Dhabi 23.08.2007.

Fascinating report about the Americas´Cup and the speedy recovery of the grinder Stefan Grossman after a Cruciate ligament operation with DR Toft 30.07.2007.

A Patient’s Story 23.11.2006. A Patient’s Story

Inaugrual Meeting of the International Association for Joint Reconstruction 20.10.2006. Inaugrual Meeting of the International Association for Joint Reconstruction

Inaugural Meeting of the International Association for Joint Reconstruction (IAJR) 16.10.2006. Meeting in Munich, 6th October 2006

Dr. Toft and Sweta Toft Help Children to Fly the Flag 03.08.2006. First European Children's Festival of Art and Creativity

Orthopaedics International Today 04.07.2006. The international orthopaedic magazine provides from prominent orthopaedic leaders news and reviews their preferred treatments and surgical approaches to common conditions in the knee shoulder and hip.

International co-operation: Alpha Klinik and the University Of Kula Lumpur Malaysia 10.04.2006.

The 20.000th Alpha Klinik knee patient successfully operated on by Dr. Toft 08.02.2006.

Arab Health 2006 11.01.2006. Prof. Juergen Toft and his team at the Arab Health Dubai -2006

Queen and Princess of Malaysia have had their second knees treated successfully by Dr. Toft 21.11.2005.

State-of-the-art cartilage repair utilizing spheroidal globules producing new cartilage to fill defects 24.10.2005.

Emirates national team soccer player 17.08.2005. Emirates national team soccer player given the green light to return to full activity after successful anterior cruciate ligament replacement only five months ago

Jumeira Beach Magazine 25.07.2005.

Prof. Juergen Toft invited to the 54th North German Orthopaedic Congress for a lecture 22.06.2005.

Dr. Toft appointed Professor at the University of Milan 31.05.2005. University honours his merits over the past 20 years in joint-preserving arthritis surgery of the knee

Dr. Toft on TV Vital 16.05.2005.

Marwa's story 31.03.2005. Marwa comes back to Alpha klinik for a full check up and gets the thumbs up for her health and her courage to face life with a smile

Queen of Malaysia sucesfully operated on knee 11.02.2005. The tenth Queen of Malaysia, her Royal Majesty of Malaysia Tunku Ampuan Najihah Tunku Besar Burhanuddin, was succesfully operated on her knee by Dr. med. Jürgen Toft.

New Feature: Patient Study & Case Histories 10.02.2005. The treatment of knee arthritis combined with axial misalignment. In addition to the study, a total of 35 case histories are now online.

Dr. Toft featured on US television - "Knee arthritis can be cured" As featured on "WBR's Health Journal Television", Dr. Toft discusses his bio-prosthesis, the longevity of the procedure and the standing point of the insurance companies. (Video in English / Transcript in English)

A Knee Patient's Success Story 24.03.2004. Rob Lindeman, an avid runner, recounts the encouraging story of his surgery at Alpha Klinik and subsequent full recovery.

Football star Ilhan Mansiz recovers successfully 25.11.2003. Following two knee operations, the Turkish national player has recovered completely.

"The Age of Arthritis" - European TIME refers to Dr. Toft's abrasion technique 09.06.2003. An article in European TIME magazine refers to the success of Dr. Toft's abrasion arthroplasty technique.

Dr. Alcy Vilas-Boas joins the Alpha Klinik 01.06.2003. Talented surgeon Dr. Alcy Vilas-Boas joins the Alpha Klinik as our second knee surgeon. He has many years of experience in minimal-invasive surgical techniques

A simple solution to knee arthritis 01.04.2003. An article published in UK Here's Health magazine, April 2003.

Four new high-tech ORs inaugurated 03.02.2003. As part of extensive expansions to the Alpha Klinik premises that are currently being carried out we recently inaugurated our 4 new high-tech operating theatres.

Dr. Toft featured on the German TV program "N24 Aktiv" 01.12.2002. A report on a skier whose torn knee ligament is repaired at the Alpha Klinik. (With German video clip and English transcript.)