After finishing his medical education at the University of Hamburg and Hanover Medical School, he was on faculty at Stanford University from 1992 to 1996.
He earned his Habilitation at Hanover Medical School in 1998 and became an adjunct full professor of internal medicine and experimental cardiology at Hanover Medical School in 2002.He became the Director of Hanover Clinical Trial Center GmbH in 2005.
Hanover Clinical Trial Center (HCTC) is an academic clinical research organization located at the campus of Hanover Medical School.Heiko and Ursula von der Leyen have seven children.