Prof. Ulf Müller-Ladner new chairman of the DGIM
11.05.2022 10:08
The Giessen internist, rheumatologist and immunologist Professor Dr. med. Ulf Müller-Ladner is the new chairman of the board of the German Society for Internal Medicine. V. (DGIM). He is the successor to the Munich gastroenterologist Professor Dr. med. Markus M. Lerch. Müller-Ladner is a professor of internal medicine with a focus on rheumatology at the Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Campus Kerckhoff Bad Nauheim. The new CEO is also the congress president of the 129th Internal Medicine Congress, which will take place from April 22nd to 25th, 2023 with the main topic “Systemic Thinking – Individual Therapy”.
The new DGIM chairman considers the central topics of his term of office to be, among other things, the further networking of the various internal medicine focuses as well as the exchange and integration of young medical talent. “We were able to experience again how fruitful collegial discussions and direct exchange are at the internists’ conference last week,” says Müller-Ladner. In addition, he wanted to continue the work of his predecessor, Professor Dr. med. Markus M. Lerch will continue to address the problems of data protection and digitalization and enter into a constructive discussion with those politically responsible about necessary changes. “It's about a science-oriented adaptation of data management so that we can also make data and biosamples that are currently stored in numerous data centers and freezers usable for clinical research. “This is the only way to gain insights into disease prevention, as well as innovative clinical studies initiated by the Akademia or new therapeutic strategies – for the benefit of our patients,” says the expert.
Ulf Müller-Ladner studied medicine at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen from 1983 to 1990, where he also received his doctorate in 1991. From 1992 onwards he completed his further training in internal medicine as an intern at the Ulm University Hospital and as an assistant doctor at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Internal Medicine I at the University of Regensburg. From 1994 to 1996 he conducted research with a DAAD research grant in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (USA).
After his return to Germany, he was recognized as a specialist in internal medicine and completed his habilitation in 1999. At the same time, the medical faculty at the University of Regensburg granted him the license to teach internal medicine. From then on, Müller-Ladner worked as a senior physician at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Internal Medicine I at the University of Regensburg. In 2004 he accepted the call from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, which appointed him full professor of internal medicine with a focus on rheumatology. Since 2005, he has also headed the Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Department at the Kerckhoff Clinic Bad Nauheim as Medical Director and is spokesman for the Giessen-Bad Nauheim Regional Rheumatism Center. From 2015 to 2016 he was President of the German Society for Rheumatology.
In his research work, the 58-year-old focuses on rheumatic diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis and fibroblasts. Müller-Ladner has published over 600 papers and is co-editor of several specialist journals. He is also involved in internal medicine research in various organizations and committees such as the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is networked in the national and international research landscape as a member of, among others, the Leopoldina and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR). He has been a member of the DGIM since 2007 and has been a member of the Senate Committee on Evaluation of the Leibniz Association since 2018.
For the DGIM Congress 2023, Müller-Ladner has chosen the guiding theme “Systemic Thinking – Individual Therapy”. “COVID-19 has once again shown us that with every internal illness there is a continuous interaction between the individual affected organ and the organism as a whole,” says Müller-Ladner. “In the search for the causes and influencing factors of diseases, we internists have to keep an eye on the entire organ system in order to be able to treat patients individually,” is how he describes the conference motto. When it comes to diagnostics and therapy, the expertise of all internal specialist areas is increasingly required, says Müller-Ladner.
The term of office of Professor Dr. ended with the 128th Internal Medicine Congress. Markus M. Lerch from Munich as the first chairman of the DGIM. Professor Dr. med. Sebastian M. Schellong from Dresden, who would have resigned from the DGIM board by rotation, was co-opted by the board on April 28, 2022 to the board of the DGIM for the topic “Deciding wisely” which he is responsible for. The DGIM members elected the nephrologist Professor Dr. med. Jan Galle from Lüdenscheid.
The DGIM board includes the following people in the period 2022/2023:
Prof. Dr. med. Ulf Müller-Ladner, Bad Nauheim, chairman
Prof. Dr. med. Markus Lerch, Munich, 1st Deputy Chairman
Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Neubauer, Marburg, 2nd Deputy Chairman
Prof. Dr. med. Jan C. Galle, Lüdenscheid, 3rd Deputy Chairman
Prof. Dr. med Georg Ertl, Würzburg, Secretary General
Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Sarrazin, Wiesbaden, treasurer
Co-opted board members:
Prof. Dr. med. Claus Vogelmeier, Marburg, special representative for the topic of “Digital Medicine”
Prof. Dr. med. Sebastian Schellong, Dresden, special representative for the topic “Decisions wisely”