His thesis published in 1886 was titled ""Über den Einfluss des Tropenklimas auf den Europäer : mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Ostindiens"". After completing his medical education, he became the first medical missionary doctor in India and remained so until 1896. During this period, he rebuilt and furnished a hospital at Calicut. His success won him respect among the local population, even as they compared his modern medical treatment methods to those of a traditional local healer, although he attributed the medical success of his work as a work of God. He introduced a revolutionary change in the region, when he could start to treat women and examine them by listening with a stethoscope. Eventually, the British government also handed him over the leadership of a Leper hospital. As the medical mission became more important and popular, many women from Malabar were also trained as doctors and nurses. In 1893, he opened another small hospital in Kottakkal, about 44 km south of Calicut, and trained Indian doctors there. The funds required to run the hospital was raised from the people around, including resident British and natives; the church members of Kottakkal also contributed according to their ability, the poor offered one or two days of free labour at the hospital in lieu of monetary contributions. By the end of 1895, owing to his serious illness, he returned to Stuttgart. He spent time in the Kurhaus Palmenwald in Freudenstadt, where he had friendly and close contact with the parents of Hermann Hesse. In 1898, together with the entrepreneur Paul Lechler, Liebendörfer founded the Association for Medical Mission as an aid organization of the Basel Mission. Liebendörfer was the first managing director of this association and remained so until shortly before his death. The Association for Medical Mission formed the basis for the current Difäm (German Institute for Medical Mission). Eugen Liebendörfer had chronic health issues and died at the age of 50 years in Stuttgart on 3 October 1902. The hospitals he built at Calicut are still intact and one serves as a dormitory for girls. A second mission hospital was also built at Bettageri, Coorg as part of the Basel medical mission. Several articles and books have been published about Liebendörfer including a few listed below: