Rolf Hartung was born in Bonn-Germany.  He started his medical studies in Bordeaux-France in 1973 and graduated in Bonn-Germany in 1979. His internship in Argentina was followed by two years of PhD in histopathology department of RWTH – University Aachen-Germany. Hereafter he completed his residency training in general surgery in the surgical department of the university hospital Aachen and became Facharzt in general surgery in 1987. He specialized in visceral and endoscopic surgery and subspecialized in visceral & digestive surgery in 1997. In 2009 he became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Fellow of the International College of Surgeons of America, and in 2012 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He worked for 16 years as head of consultants in EKM Hospital in Muelheim, an academic teaching hospital of the University Duesseldorf-Germany. In 2003 Rolf Hartung became head of general surgery in Rashid Hospital Dubai. From 2006 till 2014 he was the head of the new general surgery department in Dubai Hospital. In June 2013 he joined BR Medical Suites in Dubai Healthcare City as consultant general surgeon and Head of Surgical Department, and Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City. He became Medical Director of Mediclinic City Hospital in 2017 and in 2020 CMO at Al Zahra Hospital Dubai until 2022.

Rolf Hartung had a position as assoc. professor of surgery in Mohammed Bin Rashid University and member of the academic board of the medical college at MBRU. He also is member of the advisory board in Dubai Medical College. He was program director of Dubai Residency Training Program in general surgery from 2004 until 2010.

His interests are endocrine surgery, hernia surgery, minimally invasive surgery and high tech developments in medicine such as robotic surgery and OPMI surgery. He is member of numerous committees, international surgical associations and faculty member of multiple international surgical and medical societies. He is Vice President and UAE governor of ELSA, foundation and main board member of IFSO chapter UAE, Past President of GCC Hernia Society-a chapter of APHS, Immediate Past President of APHS from 2019 to 2021 and past-president of ESLES Emirates laparo-endoscopic society of surgeons. He has organized 25 international conferences and congresses in Dubai, and more than 100 local and national meetings. Rolf Hartung is examiner for MBBS in several national and international universities. He is reviewer and editorial board member of international journals and has given more than 200 presentations in international conferences and meetings. He has published numerous articles in international journals and books.

In his functions as director of surgery and Medical Director he has been chairing and member of multiple committees including COVID-19 command and control committee, infection control, clinical review, quality and patient safety, OR-committee, ethics and research, medical liability, transplant, brain death committee, clinical utilization, recruitment, IT, M&M, medical affairs board, medical records, head of department and pharmaceutical committee. He also chairs investigation committees and serves as expert advisor in legal cases.