Its supraregional focal points are oncology (with the Catharina Cancer Institute, including a radiotherapy department) and cardiovascular diseases (with the largest heart and vascular center in the Netherlands).

As a result of this collaboration, 19 professors are employed at the hospital, including Lukas Dekker, Volkher Scharnhorst, Ignace de Hingh, Chairman of the Board Nardo van der Meer, Huib van Vliet, Misha Luyer, and Pim Tonino.

During the same period, the hospital was negatively in the news due to disagreements within the thoracic surgery department about the performance of one of the heart surgeons.

Later research by other groups worldwide showed the same and suggested that for non-hereditary forms of ovarian cancer, the fallopian tube is the cause in at least 60% of cases.

This change came from an international study led by two cardiologists from the Catharina Hospital: Pim Tonino and Nico Pijls.

The study involved a thousand heart patients from twenty hospitals in Europe and the United States.

In 2022, Ferdi Akca became the first heart surgeon in the Netherlands to perform a bypass operation without opening the breastbone with a jigsaw.

During his training, he saw colleagues successfully use endoscopic surgery to replace a heart valve and became convinced that it could also be used for bypass operations.

In January 2023, medical engineer Nienke Bakx was named one of the fifteen greatest promises of the moment by the magazine De Ingenieur.

This list includes 330 hospitals from 28 countries excelling in the use of electronic functionalities, such as remote care, digital imaging, and the use of AI and robotics.