If your interest is minimally invasive, image-guided surgery, Strasbourg belongs on your shortlist. The IHU Strasbourg and IRCAD sit on the same campus as the Strasbourg University Hospitals (HUS), which also run an organ transplant programme and host medical genetics. Add a long-standing medical partnership with Germany, just across the Rhine, and you have a hospital city with a profile all of its own.
The big picture: Strasbourg's university hospitals and institutes
Everything revolves around the teaching hospital group. According to its 2025 welcome booklet, the Hôpitaux universitaires de Strasbourg bring together five sites with close to 2,500 beds and day places, and more than 13,000 people. Around them, research and training institutes give the city its particular profile.
| Institution | Field | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Strasbourg University Hospitals (HUS) | Teaching hospital: care, teaching, research | Five sites, including the Hôpital Civil, Hautepierre, La Robertsau and the CMCO; organ transplant activity |
| IHU Strasbourg | Image-guided minimally invasive surgery | Founded in 2011, based on the Hôpital Civil campus |
| IRCAD France | Training and research in minimally invasive surgery | Founded in Strasbourg in 1994, with an international network of centres |
| Institut de génétique médicale d'Alsace (IGMA) | Medical genetics | Located on the Hôpital Civil campus |
| Institut Strauss | Cancer centre (centre de lutte contre le cancer) | Formerly the Centre Paul Strauss; its cancer services have been separate from those of the HUS since 1 January 2026 |
To get a feel for scale, the most recent detailed key figures we could find on the HUS website cover 2021: 795 beds at the Hôpital Civil, 805 at Hautepierre, 334 at La Robertsau and 88 at the CMCO. The numbers have moved since, but the shape is clear: two large hospital hubs, backed by smaller, more focused sites.
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Image-guided surgery: the IHU and IRCAD
This is what Strasbourg is known for. The IHU Strasbourg, the "Institute of Image-Guided Surgery", was founded on 28 November 2011 by public and private partners, including the HUS, the University of Strasbourg, Inria and IRCAD. It was selected in the very first national call for university hospital institutes in 2011, and it belongs to MEDITWIN, a consortium of seven IHUs working on digital twins in healthcare, according to the French National Research Agency (ANR).
Next door, IRCAD France, founded in 1994, focuses on training, research and innovation in minimally invasive surgery. It reports training more than 8,800 specialists a year with over 880 international faculty members, and runs a network of eight centres across four continents. The IHU, for its part, says it has trained professionals and students from 117 countries.
What does that mean day to day? You would be working where surgical innovation is part of the furniture: patient care, research on image-guided procedures and surgeon training all happen on the same campus. For surgeons and anaesthetists, it is a place to keep learning; for theatre nurses, it means tools and protocols that move quickly. None of this guarantees a job, but it does make for an unusual working environment.
Transplants and medical genetics at the HUS
The second strength is transplantation. The HUS key figures for 2021 list 259 transplants that year: 118 kidney, 84 liver, 39 lung and 16 heart. Activity on that scale involves a whole chain of care, from donor coordination and theatre to intensive care, follow-up and rehabilitation.
Genetics is the other field to watch. The Institut de génétique médicale d'Alsace (IGMA) sits on the Hôpital Civil campus, close to the IHU and IRCAD. If rare diseases and genetic diagnosis are your area, Strasbourg deserves a closer look.
Cancer care since 2026
The landscape changed on 1 January 2026. Since then, the Paul Strauss cancer centre, now called the Institut Strauss, and the HUS have offered separate public cancer services, while remaining on the same site at 17 rue Albert Calmette. If oncology is your field, look into both organisations.
Working next door to Germany
Strasbourg is a border city, and healthcare is no exception. A Franco-German framework agreement on cross-border healthcare cooperation, signed in 2005 and in force since 1 April 2007, links the Grand Est region on the French side with Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland on the German side.
In a press release from the 2010s, the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict gave two practical examples: German emergency doctors had been able to cross the Rhine to treat patients since 2006, and a joint medical platform between the Kork epilepsy centre and the HUS had been caring for patients with severe epilepsy since 2009. Work is done in French, but German can be a real plus with some patients.
Which healthcare professionals will find their place?
- Doctors: surgery and anaesthesia around image-guided procedures, transplantation, genetics, oncology at the HUS or the Institut Strauss. See our guide for EU-qualified doctors.
- Nurses: operating theatres, intensive care, transplant units, oncology. See our guide for nurses.
- Midwives: the CMCO, a medical, surgical and obstetric centre, is one of the HUS sites. See our guide for midwives.
- Physiotherapists: rehabilitation after surgery or transplantation, including lung transplants. See our guide for physiotherapists.
- Aides-soignants (healthcare assistants): part of every clinical team. See our guide for healthcare assistants.
- Occupational therapists: rehabilitation and regaining independence after a major hospital stay. See our guide for occupational therapists.
Everyday life in Strasbourg
Strasbourg is a university city with a strong European identity, on the Rhine at the German border, and you will hear plenty of languages in the street. A tram network serves the city, and for many residents Germany is simply part of everyday life. To plan your move, read our guide to settling in France and our housing guide. For pay, see our article on healthcare salaries in France.
From idea to application
Picking Strasbourg is the first step. How you get the right to practise then depends on your profession and your qualification: start with your profession's guide above and our general guide to practising in France with an EU healthcare qualification. If you would like support along the way, the Suxens waiting list is open.