Invisible organs offer the prospect of a life without rejection and without immunosuppression.
Dr. Sveja Eberhard heads the policy, research and press division at the health insurance fund AOK Lower Saxony. Dr. Eberhard is considered an expert in health strategies in the conflict area of demographic development and medical progress with limited resources. Following a diploma in health insurance management, she completed the European Master of Science in Epidemiology at the University of Mainz and finally graduated as Dr. rer. biol. hum. at the Institute for Social Medicine, Health System Research and Epidemiology of Hannover Medical School. Her focus includes research on routine SHI data, evidence-based medicine and epidemiological issues.
Peter Fricke is chair of the Federal Association of Organ Transplant Patients (Bundesverband der Organtransplantierten, BDO), head of the BDO regional group Lower Saxony and patient representative in the Federal Specialist Group Heart and Lung Transplantation at the Aqua-Institute in Göttingen. The Lower Saxony regional group represents heart, lung, kidney and liver transplant patients as well as waiting patients and has been in place since 1987. The BDO regional group meets several times a year for information events and physician-patient seminars addressing new developments in the field of organ transplantation. Members get involved in many activities in order to call attention to organ donation at several events . In collaboration with the German Organ Transplantation Foundation, the BDO supports the first contact between organ transplant patients and relatives of organ donors. Recipient of a heart transplant in 1990, Peter Fricke would like to contribute through his many years of commitment to encourage waiting patients and transplanted patients to take an active part in life again.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Greiner holds the chair for Health Economics and Health Management at the University of Bielefeld. He is editor of the "European Journal of Health Economics" and member on the scientific advisory boards of the health insurance funds TK and DAK as well as deputy chairman of the supervisory board at the Medical Center for Health in Bad Lippspringe. From May 2007 to March 2008, Prof. Greiner was a member of the scientific advisory board for the reorganization of the risk structure compensation in statutory health insurances. Since 2010, he has been a member of the German Federal Ministry of Health's Council of Experts for the Evaluation of Developments in Health Care System and, since 2015, a member of IQWiG's Scientific Advisory Board and Chairman of the German Society for Health Economics. S Prof. Greiner's scientific interests include the evaluation of health services, research on the quality of life, health technology assessment and disease management. As early as during his doctorate, he worked on cost-benefit analyses in kidney and liver transplantation.
Prof. Dr. Hermann Haller is the chair for Nephrology and director of the Clinic for Kidney and Hypertension Diseases at Hannover Medical School. He has served as chairman of the German Society for Hypertension and Prevention, editor of various journals, including "Internist" and "Der Nephrologe", and hypertension specialist of the European Society of Hypertension. Prof. Haller was initiator and speaker of the BMBF-funded Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation, whose goal is to significantly improve transplantation outcome, overcome stagnation in clinical transplantation research and increase the acceptance of transplantation medicine. Prof. Haller is considered an outstanding clinical researcher in the field of kidney transplantation and is particularly committed to the molecular and cellular mechanisms of endothelial cell damage in renal microcirculation.
Dr. Georg Matheis is a heart surgeon and successful founder and co-founder of seven companies in medical technology and biotechnology. He has two decades of experience as chairman, supervisory board member and investor. During his time at the Clinic for Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Matheis learned to combine science and clinical medicine with entrepreneurial thinking. He is a proven expert in organ support systems as well as in translating therapeutic concepts and associated medical devices into clinical applications. In 1999, Dr. Matheis founded his first company, Lifebridge, and in the following years was involved in founding Tribio, Leukocare, Rupicapra and Novalung, from which XENIOS emerged in 2013 after integrating Medos from Aachen.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel Strech is professor for Translational Bioethics at the Charité Medical University Berlin and heads a working group at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) in the QUEST Center for Transforming Biomedical Research. Previously, Prof. Strech was Heisenberg-Professor for Ethics and Governance in Biomedical Research and Innovation at the Institute for History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine at Hannover Medical School. He was long-standing board member of the International Society on Priorities in Health Care and of the German Network for Evidence-based Medicine, where he is currently spokesman of the EBM and Ethics division. In the Swiss National Fund, Prof. Strech works on the field of "Smarter Health Care" and is a member of the working group on "Ethics and Principles" of the Standing Committee for Organ Transplantation of the German Medical Association. In addition, he is Associate Editor of the journals "Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications in Genetics and Science" and BMJ Open Science. Prof. Strech is an internationally recognized expert on ethical and regulatory issues in pre-clinical and clinical research and Big Data. He is a pioneer of a particularly practice-oriented bioethics, which is closely linked to meta-research and stakeholder research.