Ten Years, One Platform: How b13 Scaled UKHD's Complex Healthcare Portal to TYPO3 v14

Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg (UKHD) is one of Germany's largest and most prestigious university hospitals, located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. With approximately 50 clinical departments, research institutes, and affiliated facilities, UKHD employs around 13,700 people, including over 2,000 physicians and nearly 3,500 nursing staff. The hospital treated well over one million patients in a single year and is closely affiliated with Heidelberg University's medical faculty, which has almost 4,000 students enrolled.

UKHD's portal included over 40,000 pages across 12 decentralized websites in three languages (German, English, Russian). Because each site operated independently, information was fragmented and inconsistent. 

Keeping this information accurate fell to internal editors managing 2,000+ physician profiles and departmental details across 50+ departments. The workflow was convoluted meaning changes had to be made manually on multiple sites. This resulted in errors and outdated information spread across the network, creating a major editorial burden. 

In healthcare, where patients depend on portals for accurate contact information and staff qualifications, these gaps have real consequences.

UKHD needed a partner who understood both healthcare complexity and enterprise-scale CMS architecture. b13 had both.

In 2016, b13 led UKHD through a complete relaunch. Rather than a disruptive wholesale migration, b13 took an interactive approach, progressively migrating sites into a single TYPO3 instance.

The initial launch included the core TYPO3 instance configured for multilingual support in three languages paired with a durable UX design and information architecture built specifically with healthcare complexity and scalability in mind.

Over the following seven years, b13 remained UKHD's continuous partner, progressively integrating additional websites into the central instance and providing ongoing performance tuning and feature enhancements based on the hospital's evolving needs.

In 2023, the project focus was reskin and modernization. Building on a successful partnership, UKHD trusted b13 with optimizing their performance, improving accessibility and ensuring compliance with current standards. A comprehensive reskin of the design was a major focus which entailed maintaining the strong UX concept and information architecture, while updating visual language to reflect modern standards.

Critically, b13 implemented the master site extension, ensuring that future design updates could be rolled out efficiently across all 12 sites without duplicated effort.

In 2026, following TYPO3 v14’s release, the project was updated to the latest version, positioning it as one of the first organizations globally to adopt the latest major TYPO3 release. b13’s approach was to keep UKHD on the most capable version of TYPO3, demonstrating the commitment to long-term platform value. This allows UKHD to evolve and leverage new technologies within their system.

The UKHD portal now serves as a single source of truth. When a patient searches for a physician, operating hours, or qualifications they will access the information easily, in all five languages. Search (powered by Solr) is reliable and consistent. Information is centralized and accurate because it’s housed in one place, maintained by an efficient editorial workflow.

The 12 websites, all operating under a single TYPO3 instance, share a design system and feature catalog—ensuring centralized data management. This results in lower maintenance costs.

UKHD operates on a platform that’s compliant with current accessibility and compliance standards. The website is primed with a scalable infrastructure that can continue to grow without platform replacement, supported by their partner, b13, who has deep expertise in healthcare complexity and TYPO3 at the highest level.

A decade-long partnership is rare and requires real trust and alignment. b13 understands the complexities of the industry and the stakes of accuracy. They designed a system within TYPO3 that evolved with UKHD, not one that would need replacing.