About MMW Fortschritte der Medizin

MMW Fortschritte der Medizin

MMW – Fortschritte der Medizin is the cross-media continuing-education journal for physicians in private practice in Germany, published by the Springer Medizin Verlag, part of Springer Nature. Born in 1999 from the fusion of two venerable titles — the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, founded in Munich in 1853 as the Aerztliches Intelligenz-Blatt, and the Fortschritte der Medizin, founded in 1882 with Robert Koch among its founders — the journal carries more than 170 years of German medical publishing into the present. Appearing fortnightly (ISSN print 1438-3276, online 1613-3560), it serves the niedergelassene Ärzte — the office-based physicians who form the backbone of German outpatient care — with scientifically serious, competently and readably prepared current medical content of high practical use. As the first German medical journal to offer its readers certified continuing medical education (CME), the MMW lets physicians earn up to 50 CME points a year — with 30 to 40 CME courses and over 100,000 participants annually.

Overview

The journal presents itself as the cross-media medical continuing-education organ for office-based physicians. Its editorial program covers the full spectrum of clinical medicine as practiced in the German outpatient sector: internal medicine, cardiology, pneumology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, diabetology, neurology, pain medicine, and the other specialties that the general practitioner and the office-based specialist encounter daily. Around 50 renowned editors guarantee the high professional quality; the content is prepared to be scientifically serious yet readable, with high practical benefit.

The readership is defined by the German ambulatory care system: general practitioners (Hausärzte) and office-based specialists — cardiologists, pneumologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists, and the other Fachärzte of the niedergelassener Bereich. The IVW-audited distributed circulation stood at 54,604 copies in the second quarter of 2022, making the MMW one of the highest-circulation German-language medical journals. The journal's CME program is its defining feature: as the first German medical specialist journal to offer certified continuing medical education, it enables physicians to collect up to 50 CME points per year through its 30 to 40 annual CME courses, in which over 100,000 participants take part each year.

The journal cooperates with numerous scientific societies and professional associations — including the German Migraine and Headache Society, the German Society for the Study of Pain, the Federal Association of Pneumologists (BdP), the Bavarian Diabetes Commission, the German Hypertension League, the Bavarian Society for Gastroenterology, the German League against Vascular Diseases, the German Society for Endocrinology (DGE), and the Federal Association of Office-Based Cardiologists (BNK) — whose guidelines and recommendations reach the practitioner through the journal's pages.

History

The journal's history begins with its two predecessor titles. The Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift was founded in Munich in 1853 as the Aerztliches Intelligenz-Blatt, published by J. F. Lehmanns Verlag — one of the great German medical publishing houses. The Fortschritte der Medizin was founded in 1882, with the bacteriologist Robert Koch — the discoverer of the tuberculosis bacillus and Nobel laureate — among its founders. Both titles accompanied German medicine through the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, and the postwar decades; the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift appeared under the MMW title from 1950.

In 1999, the two titles were fused into MMW – Fortschritte der Medizin, published by Urban & Vogel — the medical publishing house that became a wholly owned subsidiary of Springer — and today by the Springer Medizin Verlag, part of Springer Nature. The journal appeared weekly until 2011 (with four double issues) and has since appeared fortnightly, as it already did in the J. F. Lehmann era. The Heidelberg University library catalog records the run from 1999, with the online edition (ISSN 1613-3560) from volume 148 (2006) on SpringerLink.

The CME innovation marked the journal's modern identity: the MMW was the first German medical specialist journal to offer its readers the certification of medical continuing education — a pioneering role in the era when Germany's physicians were required to document their continuing education. The journal's cooperation network with the specialist societies grew steadily, making the MMW the channel through which the societies' knowledge reaches the office-based physician.

Coverage and Content

The editorial coverage of the MMW follows the clinical reality of the German outpatient practice. Internal medicine forms the largest beat: cardiology (hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmias — with the German Hypertension League and the office-based cardiologists as partners), pneumology (asthma, COPD, with the BdP), gastroenterology, endocrinology and diabetology (with the Bavarian Diabetes Commission), and nephrology. Neurology and pain medicine appear with the headache and pain societies; infectious diseases, vaccination, and antimicrobial therapy reflect the journal's public-health dimension.

The CME courses are the journal's signature format: 30 to 40 certified continuing-education units per year, each combining a review article with the test questions that earn the CME points — over 100,000 participants annually. The journal's guidelines coverage brings the specialist societies' recommendations to the practitioner: the German-language medical guidelines (Leitlinien) translated into practice-relevant summaries. Case reports, drug-therapy updates, and the "EKG Essential" and similar practical series serve the daily diagnostic and therapeutic work.

The journal's content is available in the full range of the Springer Medizin digital formats: online full text, e-paper, and PDF — the cross-media continuing-education organ in print and digital. The cooperation with the societies ensures that the content reflects the current state of the guidelines and the specialties' consensus.

Organization and Ownership

MMW – Fortschritte der Medizin is published by the Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, part of Springer Nature, with editorial operations in Berlin and Munich (the catalog records Berlin and Munich as publication places; the Wikipedia infobox gives Munich as the headquarters). The Springer Medizin Verlag emerged from Urban & Vogel, the Munich medical publishing house that became a wholly owned subsidiary of Springer. The journal carries the Springer Medizin journal ID 15006 on SpringerLink, with coverage from volume 148 (2006) to volume 168 (2026).

The editorial structure rests on the around 50 renowned editors (Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber) who guarantee the professional quality — the specialist societies' experts and the office-based physicians' representatives who shape the program. The journal's cooperation partners — the migraine and headache society, the pain society, the pneumologists' federal association, the Bavarian diabetes commission, the hypertension league, the Bavarian gastroenterology society, the vascular-diseases league, the endocrinology society, and the office-based cardiologists — form the institutional network in which the journal operates.

The IVW-audited distributed circulation of 54,604 copies (Q2/2022) documents the journal's reach among German office-based physicians. The commercial model is that of a large medical continuing-education journal: subscriptions from physicians and institutions, advertising from the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries, and the CME program that binds the readership to the title.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is springermedizin.de, where the MMW appears with its journal page (journal ID 15006), offering the contents in online full text, e-paper, and PDF formats. The SpringerLink archive carries the journal from volume 148 (2006) to the current volume 168 (2026), with the electronic ISSN 1613-3560. The Regensburg Electronic Journals Library (EZB) records the journal as a paid-access title, with access through Springer Medizin free for registered medical professionals from 2006.

The CME program's digital dimension — the online test questions and the certification workflow — makes the journal's continuing-education function a digital service: the 100,000 annual participants complete their courses through the Springer Medizin platforms. The journal's supplements and special issues, sometimes titled differently online than in print, extend the digital offering. In print, online, and in the CME classroom, the MMW remains what its 1999 fusion intended: the continuing-education journal of the German office-based physician, carrying the heritage of the 1853 Aerztliches Intelligenz-Blatt and the 1882 Fortschritte der Medizin into the digital age.