This book is a tribute to all of the many doctors, researchers, nurses, administrators, visitors and many others who have contributed to the success of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital of Zurich during the last 100 years. Leading personalities and a team of determined employees have made the clinic what it is today: the largest otorhinolaryngological clinic in Switzerland.
The journey started in April 1917, when Professor Felix Nager was commissioned by the government of the canton of Zurich to establish a clinic for otorhinolaryngology and to conduct this clinic separately from the outpatient clinic of internal medicine. In this time, otorhinolaryngology was a new emerging surgical and research subject to be explored by pioneers. There was only limited knowledge available and new information was waiting to be discovered. Since then, times have changed rigorously and now it seems to be the other way around. There is so much information discovered and always and everywhere easily available that we need superspecialists and information technology to handle it. But finding new and - most importantly - relevant knowledge is extremely difficult and requires teams of interdisciplinary experts with sophisticated laboratory equipment.