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The National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg has received the “Self-Help Friendly Hospital” award for the sixth time since 2012. The award recognizes the center's long-standing commitment to integrating self-help groups into the care of cancer patients and actively incorporating their perspectives into the treatment process.

The certificate was presented during a ceremony on November 25, 2025, by Ines Krahn, coordinator of the Self-Help Friendliness and Patient Orientation Network, to Dirk Jäger, Managing Director at NCT Heidelberg and head of the Department of Medical Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital. 

Key quality criteria for the award include close cooperation with self-help groups, their integration into clinical processes, and the promotion of exchange between patients, medical staff, and self-help organizations. The NCT Heidelberg has demonstrably met these requirements for years: self-help is an integral part of patient care here. 

An important cooperation partner is the Heidelberg Self-Help Office, with which the NCT Heidelberg has had an agreement to support cancer patients since 2011. The office serves as a central point of contact for patients and their relatives, facilitates access to suitable self-help groups, and supports the integration of the groups into everyday clinical life.

Self-help groups at the NCT Heidelberg offer patients not only emotional support, but also practical assistance, information events, and discussion groups. Through close cooperation with staff, patients' needs are actively incorporated into treatment and care. Anne-Kathrin Müller, the self-help coordinator at NCT Heidelberg, acts as an interface between patients, self-help groups, and clinic staff.

The integration of self-help into everyday clinical practice is also evident in numerous projects and initiatives: for example, the patient advisory board was established in 2015 and the pilot service in 2017 as a result of the self-help-friendliness process. At the Heidelberg Cancer Patient Day, self-help groups actively help shape the program, are involved in the quality circle for self-help friendliness, and bring the patient perspective to other committees and academic initiatives. Patients' needs for self-help services are recorded in patient screening and discussed in the biopsychosocial tumor board. Self-help is part of the counseling services at NCT Heidelberg. 

For patients, the award means reliable support through psychosocial services and opportunities to exchange experiences with others in similar situations. For NCT Heidelberg, it underscores its commitment to providing holistic, patient-oriented cancer care at the highest level.