LADR History - Laboratory Medicine in Germany for over 75 years

Traditional medical freedom.

In 1960, Dr. Siegfried Kramer was recognized as one of the first specialists in laboratory medicine.

At the end of the 1960s, large equipment was added to the laboratory, and electronic data processing was introduced in the 1970s. Laboratory analysis became the basis of modern medical practice. The number of analyses rose along with the continuously increasing quality requirements and faster turn-around times. His son, Dr. Detlef Kramer, MD, joined the practice in the mid-1970s, and it started to become apparent that cooperation between several physicians may be beneficial in an effort to meet the long-term professional and economic requirements taking into account the increasing number of regulations.

Collegiality and trust. 

In ​1974, Dr. Siegfried Kramer, MD, established a joint venture with physicians in the South Holstein region: a collaboration of locally and regionally active physicians.  The future will show that it was a good idea: In subsequent years, other laboratory-groups join the cooperation gradually. Dr. Detlef Kramer joined the laboratory management in 1977, and became a partner in the group practice. Thanks to his commitment and the tireless efforts of the laboratory staff,  more than 35 laboratory groups collaborated with Dr. Kramer and his associates.

The idea of offering specialized laboratory analytics to requesting physicians on regional basis, in addition to the basic diagnostics services, led to the establishment of a “Joint Venture for Diagnostics and Rationalization” in 1974. LADR was established two decades later to function as a network comprised of medical laboratory practices, with a mutual effort develop new technologies, scientific medical information, service contents and advanced training, and to offer these to the requesting physicians.​

A partner for your practice!

Now that the medical laboratory network has been expanded, the logistical and operational requirements have increased. In an effort to make more effictive use of the laboratory’s courier services for local physicians, Dr. Detlef Kramer and Dr. Siegfried Kramer established Intermed Service, which successfully pursues the sales of medical supplies.

During its more than 35 years of existence, Intermed became increasingly important - as a partner for the requesting physician offices, it provided many different services. Moreover, affiliated laboratories were also supported by Intermed in various areas at the laboratory organizational level.

Teamwork and mutual support.

Today, LADR is a national association of medical laboratories in Germany who joined forces to provide medical laboratory services on a regional basis. The specialized medical laboratory practices are organized as medical support centers all under one roof. The regional specialists mostly collaborate independently on behalf of the regional branches, with a special emphasis on a good working relationship with the supervisory laboratory association.  Administrative services such as IT, purchasing, logistics, marketing and field  sales, human resources, accounting and contracting are provided as part of the Intermed Service, with the aim of achieving synergies. The regional specialists receive support for their administrative duties and are therefore able to concentrate on their professional tasks on-site. Legal and policy limitations mean that it is vital to achieve economically optimized collaboration in terms of rationalization in order to provide sustainable and high-quality services. The company structure is excellent, and as a result international cooperation with several laboratories in other countries has also been established.

Your on-site laboratory! 

When the laboratory founder’s grandson, Prof. Dr. Jan Kramer, MD, specialist in laboratory medicine and in internal medicine, joined the medical service center, Dr. Kramer & Associates in Geesthacht in 2009 and the management staff of the LADR-Association in 2012, the company, and particularly the laboratory segment of LADR has remained an owner-operated medical company despite the fact that trends tend to be reversed in the healthcare sector around the world .

Despite all of the commercial and economic pressures, the central focus of our medical activities is to guarantee regional medical laboratory services at a standard which remains high to our requesting physicians and our mutual patients. Providing summarized and rare specialized medical analyses means that the company can improve turn-around results. A result report for over 90% of specialized analyses is prepared the same day the sample is submitted. The results of a basic analysis for the diagnostic decision-making process are available to the requesting party from the on-site laboratory within a few hours of drawing blood. We support our requesting physicians with advanced training in the framework of the cross-regional LADR academy, as well as with qualified consulting services and informational materials.

Quality and speed.

Currently, the LADR-Association has over 3,000 employees working in the Dr. Kramer & Associates laboratory. Medical analysis samples are picked up on daily basis from over 20,000 local physicians and more than 400 clinics. The association partner’s certified couriers travel around the globe three times per day to ensure an optimized medical support procedure on-site. Well over 11,000 different test methods can be carried out in the LADR laboratories. The central laboratory in Geesthacht alone processed more than 2.5 million laboratory orders in 2010. A patient and his personal outcome are behind each order and each medical sample vial.

Consulting and availability. 

Constant medical advancement and specialization in all professional areas result in an increased number of requirements on physicians and all other parties involved in the healthcare industry. Cross-regional and interdisciplinary collaboration is one advantage of the association structure. The LADR network provides more than 100 specialists in laboratory medicine, microbiology, hygiene and human genetics, as well as diverse clinical specialties and experts in natural science disciplines for qualified consultations in person.

The interdisciplinary collaboration means that qualified advice is available for all laboratory analysis inquiries. We guarantee constant availability to our requesting physicians through our expert group hotlines and emergency telephone numbers for medical laboratory and microbiological and toxicology  inquiries.

Specialists for personal care are available in our medical care centers (MVZ) (MCC, Medical Care Centers) on-site. All medical laboratory facilities for basic analyses (laboratory groups) and hospital support facilities also have qualified management. Do you have any questions? Feel free to contact us!