Guiding Principles of the Charité

Vision
Our goal is to be the international innovation leader in research, teaching and healthcare. It is from this vision that we derive our mission and our values. The mission is central to all our activities.

Mission
Guiding Principles of the Charité
As a scientific enterprise, we bring cutting-edge medicine to the bedside and into lecture halls. The Charité stands for modern medical training in Germany. We aspire to the highest scientific excellence by combining patient-centered care, efficiency, responsibility, respect and entrepreneurship in the context of university medicine. This dedicated mission serves as a guide for the activities of all staff members and students at the Charité. The following values serve as the basis for our professional activities:

Helping hands
The name 'Charité' itself ─ charity or mercy ─ expresses our commitment to extending a helping hand whenever possible. In all its endeavors the Charité is unreservedly dedicated to meeting the individual needs of our patients by honoring and respecting each individual person, in addition to providing the best possible care and support. This pledge to helping whenever possible also includes Charité staff.

Science-based medicine
Excellence in the areas of international research and science-oriented teaching typify the Charité. The standards of good scientific practice serve as the foundation for our research and teaching. The Charité stands for the most up-to-date medical training in Germany coupled with the highest scientific aspirations, which we always work to further improve. Our institution is an international leader in our chosen areas of research focus; we are dedicated to maintaining and further strengthening the top positions we currently enjoy.

Responsibility
The Charité is very much aware of the trust that patients, family members, students and business partners place in it each and every day. We always strive to ensure that such trust is handled with the highest degree of responsibly. This requires competence, transparency and reliability. The Charité is wholly committed to the ethical handling of medical research findings vis-a-vis society at large.

Entrepreneurship
The Charité links all its scientific, curative and ethical practices to a commitment to promote entrepreneurial sustainability throughout its endeavors. The Charité supports inventions and spin-off enterprises; our goal is to make scientific knowledge accessible to society at large. Through entrepreneurial activities, both nationally and internationally, we seek to further strengthen the importance of the healthcare industry that we have developed over the past 300 years.

Respect
Openness, fairness and mutual respect characterize all Charité staff members. This makes our institution an attractive workplace for the best professional and managerial staff from around the world. The corporate culture practiced at the Charité is based on trust, equal opportunity and diversity.