Today, the Kiel Pain Clinic can look back on 20 years of innovative patient care. On January 3, 1998, the first patients were admitted for inpatient, cross-disciplinary and cross-sector treatment. The Kiel Pain Clinic was founded in 1997 as a scientific model project from the Kiel University Hospital by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Göbel founded and contractually supported by the AOK. With the Techniker Krankenkasse, the concept was then adapted for nationwide care and an innovative outpatient-inpatient treatment network with over 450 established pain therapists was initiated nationwide. Today, the clinic works as a nationwide center in the context of multimodal pain therapy with coordinated treatment plans and regional pain therapists in practices and clinics. Our clinic treats over 1,800 patients every year from across Germany and worldwide. In order to provide care for those insured by all health insurance companies, it was included in the hospital plan at the end of 2013. In addition, in accordance with the care contract in accordance with Sections 108 No. 3, 109 SGB V, the clinic provides acute, fully inpatient treatment (Section 39 Paragraph 1 SGB V) for the indications of chronic pain in diseases of the health insurance associations for insured persons living outside Schleswig-Holstein central, peripheral and autonomic nervous system including the muscles as part of neurobehavioral medical treatment procedures. There are currently 80 beds available for this purpose.

Our treatment concept focuses on neurological pain disorders such as migraines, chronic headaches and other pain disorders associated with diseases of the nervous system. These are among the ten most disabling conditions and, after dementia and stroke, one of the three most expensive neurological diseases. Traditional sectoral care and medical specialist boundaries increase their tendency to become chronic.

The core is multimodal pain therapy, i.e. the consistent interdisciplinary implementation of international scientific knowledge and differentiated service requirements to meet the needs of patients, indication-specific cooperation between specialized practitioners and networking.

The Kiel Pain Clinic has anticipated modern developments in medicine, particularly integrated care. Integrated care (IV) means that treatment is not restricted by specialist boundaries. The isolation of outpatient and inpatient care areas will also be lifted. Experts from various medical fields work together to treat patients in an optimally coordinated manner using contemporary methods. Outpatient and inpatient treatment are networked and coordinated. This makes treatment based on the latest medical standards possible without sectoral barriers.

The aim is to provide lasting pain relief, rebuild quality of life and restore the ability to work. The clinic has received multiple awards for its innovative treatment concept, including the prize for the best implementation of integrated care in Germany. Patient satisfaction in the nationwide treatment network is very high. This is confirmed to us again and again by patients and also the health insurance companies. Scientifically, the clinic collaborates with leading international headache and pain centers. The clinic is a global model for similar facilities worldwide.

We want to provide all the knowledge that is available nationally and internationally for the care of chronic pain directly to patients, both now and in the future, and in doing so take the needs of people with chronic pain into account in a highly specialized manner. We are also focusing on research into neurological pain disorders, migraines and other headaches in order to further improve future treatment. The collaboration between innovative health insurance companies and specialists has enabled exemplary progress in care nationwide beyond standard care. These must be maintained and expanded.

On the 20th birthday of the Kiel Pain Clinic, I would like to thank everyone who was so committed to making it happen. Today I would particularly like to thank our extremely committed team, which now includes over 100 employees.

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Göbel