Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine

About

The Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine is the largest specialized clinical and scientific research institute in the Czech Republic. IKEM is focused on the fields of cardiovascular diseases, organ transplants, diabetology, and metabolism disorders. IKEM is a contributory organization directly managed by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic. Payments for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures from health insurance companies are the main financial resource of IKEM. Research activities are funded by grants from Czech and foreign grant agencies. A part of its financial resources are also obtained by IKEM from services provided to other organizations, for example, pharmaceutical companies, through cooperation with them in the development of medicines. IKEM was established in 1971 upon the integration of six research institutes that were until then independent: the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Surgery, the Institute for Circulatory System Diseases, the Institute for Public Nutrition Research, the Research Institute for Experimental Therapy, the Research Institute for the Use of Radioisotopes in Medicine, and the Research Institute for Electronics and Modelling in Medicine. Their integration gave rise to the largest science and research institute, comprising three specialized centers: the Cardiology Center, the Transplantation Center, and the Diabetology Center. The IKEM Cardiac Center is the largest, most comprehensive, and oldest cardiology center in the Czech Republic. The center is focused on the therapy of cardiac and vascular diseases in adult patients across their entire spectrum, congenital and acquired. The IKEM Cardiac Center is composed of four departments and units that offer patient care in the fields of cardiology and cardiosurgery. The center is also focused on the prevention of civilizational diseases. It is not only a medical center but also a teaching and research center. The Diabetes Center covers therapeutic and preventive, scientific and research, and educational activities in diabetology and metabolism and nutrition disorders. It is the largest center of diabetology in the Czech Republic. The center is primarily focused on patients with organ complications, thus not only patients with diabetes in its initial stage but especially patients with rather serious complications. In the field of diabetology and nutrition, the center is included in the network of selected specialized centers providing care to patients with metabolic diseases and has the status of a diabetology center. The Transplantation Center outlines and coordinates the program in relation to kidney transplantations, combined kidney and pancreas transplantations, and liver transplantations under the collaboration of the departments of transplantation surgery, anesthesiology, resuscitation, and intensive care, nephrology and hepatogastroenterology, the division of immunology, and the division of transplantation documentation. Within the direct scope of activity of the SOCD director, the specialized outpatient care division provides prevention and medical care to IKEM employees at specialized outpatient offices of gynecology, neurology, logopaedics, dermatovenerology, stomatology, psychiatry, and the on-site doctor. Furthermore, the division provides consulting services in the above-listed specialties to IKEM patients as needed, upon request with appropriate justification. The mission of the Experimental Medicine Center is to concentrate the research in molecular biology and genetics and the study of experimental pathophysiological and physiological models in the field of research of all three specialized centers of IKEM. The center is predominantly financed from grant resources, from the resources of national research centers, from the institutional resources of the research plan of IKEM, and through sponsorship. Individual projects are primarily managed by employees of individual EMC laboratories and also by clinical staff in the scope of cooperation with individual specialized centers of IKEM. The center organizes and ensures administrative aspects of the scientific preparation of IKEM staff. EMC serves as the basis for postgraduate study in molecular biology and genetics, physiology and pathophysiology, biochemistry and pathobiochemistry, and metabolic disorders. The Nursing Care and Quality Department is managed by the deputy director for nursing care and quality, the head nurse. All healthcare personnel other than doctors, lower healthcare personnel (LHP), and auxiliary healthcare personnel (AHP) fall under the Nursing Care and Quality Department. The Nursing Care and Quality Department ensures the organization of nursing care and top management at IKEM in the fields of sanitary services, central patient admission, a central archive of medical documentation, and central sterilization. The Nursing Care and Quality Department comprises the Division of Nutritional Therapists, which provides specific and specialized nursing care related to the provision of nutritional needs for hospitalized patients as well as for patients in outpatient care at IKEM. The department closely cooperates with the head nurses of the clinical divisions and with the head employees of other paraclinical divisions. The Nursing Care and Quality Department ensures and carries out the selection and admission of new healthcare personnel other than doctors and also makes decisions in other fields of occupational relations. The department includes the IKEM quality manager, who provides methodical guidance, coordination, and other tasks of a specialized nature related to the implementation of the quality management system. The management of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) is aware of the importance of links between internal processes and the quality of its activities and their results and undertakes to comply with the following quality policy in accordance with applicable legislation and legal requirements. The Institute wants to serve the benefit of citizens' health in accordance with their needs and with society's interest in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, in the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath and the humanistic ideals of European and world medicine and medical science. The Institute wants to build an effective, intelligent organization with a stabilized, motivated, and professionally efficient team of employees. The Institute wants to be a socially responsible organization that considers environmental protection and the protection of its employees within FP and OSH to be two of its standards.