About Passion Chirurgie

Passion Chirurgie

Passion Chirurgie is the official members' journal of the Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgen (BDC) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (DGCH) — the highest-circulation journal for surgeons in Germany. Published from the BDC's Berlin offices (Luisenstraße 58/59, 10117 Berlin), it appears ten times a year as an e-magazine, with a quarterly print edition. The journal informs the members about the current topics of professional, association, tariff and health policy, the young surgeons' affairs and the surgical specialist topics with specialist articles and experience reports. Its lineage runs from the 1960 BDC circulars through the 1967 Mitteilungen des BDC to the 2011 relaunch as Passion Chirurgie — the joint BDC-DGCH members' journal since December 2016.

Overview

Passion Chirurgie is the German-language members' journal for surgeons, published jointly by the Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgen (the professional association) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (the scientific society). It appears ten times a year as an e-magazine, readable on PC, Mac, tablet and smartphone, plus a quarterly print edition that offers a cross-section of the quarter's electronically published articles. The programme: the professional, association, tariff and health policy — the surgeons' working conditions, the hospital financing, the fee schedules — the young surgeons' affairs — the training, the careers, the work-life balance — and the surgical specialist topics — the specialist articles and experience reports from all surgical disciplines. The journal is explicitly opened to the surgical specialist societies: the current developments from the surgical disciplines brought to all interested colleagues, even those at home in another discipline — preserving the unity of all surgeons despite the many subdisciplines, speaking again with a common strong voice. The editorial office is the BDC's press and public-relations department; the editor is Katrin Kammerer.

History

In the nearly 60 years of the BDC's association history there were at all times news for the members; the form, circulation and design look naturally different in the digital age than in the founding years. The timeline: 1960 — the first BDC circulars sent to all members. 1967 — the first year of the association journal as the news sheet Mitteilungen des BDC, keeping members informed about current health-policy developments and association internals. 1969 — the Informationen des Berufsverbandes der Deutschen Chirurgen e.V. appear for the first time as a special print in Der Chirurg. 1991 — from the nineties the BDC publishes its association journal for the first time under the name DER CHIRURG BDC. 2011 — Passion Chirurgie appears as an e-magazine, quarterly also as a print edition: the primarily electronic publication with the familiar monthly rhythm retained, exclusively electronic, plus the quarterly print cross-section. December 2016 — Passion Chirurgie has been published since as the joint members' journal of the BDC and the DGCH: the professional association and the scientific society speaking with one journalistic voice. The 2021 Werner-Körte-Medaille in Silber — the DGCH's annual prize at the German Surgeons' Congress — honoured Katrin Kammerer, the BDC editor, for her steady support of the DGCH, especially in producing the jointly run members' journal Passion Chirurgie. The journal's 2026 issues — the January/February perioperative-management issue with its three specialist contributions — continue the monthly rhythm.

Coverage and Content

The journal's programme is the surgeons' professional world. The professional and health policy: the working conditions and the respect for surgeons in Germany — the journal's declared mission to actively interfere for better conditions — the hospital reform, the staffing, the tariffs. The association policy: the BDC's and DGCH's internals — the congresses, the elections, the positions. The hospital reform's consequences for the surgical departments — the centralisation, the minimum volumes, the financing — are the journal's recurring policy topics. The tariff policy — the fee schedules, the private liquidation, the employed surgeons' contracts — is the members' bread-and-butter. The "active interference" is the journal's editorial stance: not the neutral observer but the association's voice — the surgeons' interests articulated, the politicians addressed, the public informed. The training's quality — the operation catalogues, the mentoring, the working hours — decides the discipline's future, and the journal gives the young surgeons their forum. The specialist topics: the original contributions in the title theme — the perioperative management, the surgical techniques — the specialist articles and experience reports from the disciplines. The CME-certified continuing-education articles are integrated: the reader landing directly at the matching learning courses in the eCME-Center — the journal as the continuing-education medium. The e-magazine uses all advantages of the electronic journal: videos, podcasts, lecture recordings. The videos show the surgical techniques — the operations filmed, the procedures demonstrated. The podcasts carry the discussions — the interviews, the debates, the congress impressions. The lecture recordings preserve the congresses — the presentations available after the event. The green check marks the downloaded issues — readable without internet, on the ward, in the on-call room. The historical series — the "significant but (almost) forgotten surgeons," like Dr. Max Tiegel (1877–1957) and his anaesthesia overpressure apparatus — cultivates the discipline's memory. The journal's journalism is the association press's: informing the members, opening the disciplines to each other, preserving the unity.

Organization and Ownership

Passion Chirurgie is published jointly by the Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgen e.V. (BDC) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (DGCH). The editorial office sits in the BDC's Berlin headquarters (Luisenstraße 58/59, 10117 Berlin), in the press and public-relations department — the department that, besides the press releases and media monitoring, handles the online communication with the members and above all the members' journal. The editor is Katrin Kammerer, honoured with the 2021 Werner-Körte-Medaille in Silber for the jointly run journal. The close cooperation of the DGCH and the BDC is reflected in the department: the press and public-relations work is jointly designed to strengthen the association's perception and be heard with one voice; further specialist societies under the DGCH's roof are to be included. The commercial model is the association journal's: the members' subscriptions — the BDC and DGCH memberships — the medical-technology and pharmaceutical advertisers, and the eCME-Center's continuing-education integration. The journal is the highest-circulation journal for surgeons in Germany.

Digital Presence

The journal lives on bdc.de — the BDC's online portal with the e-magazine's monthly issues readable online, the issue archive back to 2011, the PDFs for download, the mailing and printing functions. The BDC|Mobile app — in the Apple AppStore and Google Play under "BDC" and "BDC Service" — gives the members access to all Passion Chirurgie issues since 2011, the 900-plus interactive CME learning courses from the eCME-Center and the current news from surgery, the association and health policy; the BDC membership number and surname unlock the full functions. The social media — the BDC's Instagram profile under construction, the cooperations with the student associations, the Perspektivforum Junge Chirurgie and the Bündnis Junge Ärzte — extend the journal into the young surgeons' networks. In the German medical-press landscape Passion Chirurgie occupies the surgeons' association-journal pole: the joint BDC-DGCH members' journal — ten e-magazine issues a year, quarterly in print, the highest-circulation surgeons' journal — from the Luisenstraße to the operating theatres, in the app and online. The joint BDC-DGCH editorship is the German surgery's institutional unity made journalistic: the professional association's members and the scientific society's members reading the same journal — the employed and the self-employed, the clinic and the practice, the young and the established. The title's promise — the passion for surgery — is the journal's tone: the discipline's pride articulated, the surgeon's identity celebrated, the craft honoured.