Hannover Medical School

Germany

Hannover Medical School (MHH) is represented by an interdisciplinary team of physicians, sports scientists, oncologists and nutritionists in an institutional collaboration between the Institute of Sports Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation- and Sports Medicine (led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Tegtbur) and the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology (led by Prof. Dr. Heiner Wedemeyer). Hannover Medical School is an oncological center of excellence with certifications by the German Cancer Society and part of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Lower Saxony (CCC-N). Our background brings together the expertise of a visceral oncology center with the knowledge about the establishment of individually tailored sport programs based on personal needs and risks. As an implementation site for physical activity, we aim to use the PIECES Toolkit to implement a physical activity program for people with metabolic risk factors and liver diseases to enhance individual health and reduce cancer risk. Our implementation setting is the occupational health care system with internal health check-ups via the medical service in a large automotive company.

Heiner Wedemayer

Heiner Wedemeyer is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology (GHIE) at Hannover Medical School. He has been involved in the scientific coordination of the German Network of Competence on Viral Hepatitis (Hep-Net) and the German Liver Foundation for more than 15 years. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director of the German Hepatitis C Registry. Heiner Wedemeyer is member of several scientific organizations and was Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver from 2009 to 2011. He is furthermore spokesperson of the “D-SOLVE” consortium funded by the European Union which aims at finding new strategies for the personalized treatment of hepatitis D. Since January 2023 Heiner Wedemeyer is President of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS).

Professor Wedemeyer has a long-term research interest in liver diseases with a main focus on viral hepatitis, liver transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma. He has been principal investigator in numerous clinical trials. He has authored more than 560 original articles; his current Hirsch-Index is 113 (google scholar; January 2024) and his work has been quoted more than 58,000 times.

His research has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF), the European Union, the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Uwe Tegtbur

Uwe Tegtbur is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation and Sportsmedicine at Hannover Medical School. He has a research interest in rehabilitation with transplant recipients, with cancer patients, and in personalized preventive medicine, in adults and in children as well. Telemedicine exercise training support increases and gives the chance to scale the individualized preventive procedures. The research has been funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education, by the German Ministry for Digital and Transport, the European Union, by the Innovationsfonds and by health insurances. He is President of the Sportmedicine society in lower Saxony.

Julia Kahlhöfer

ulia Kahlhöfer is Scientific Project Manager at the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology (GHIE), Hannover Medical School. She has previous research experience as nutritionist (University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart) and clinical research associate. Julia Kahlhöfer is familiar in the setup and management of clinical trials (phase II-IV). She has been managed research activities of GHIE in numerous projects with different partners and is involved as a project manager in the coordinating activities of the EU-funded D-SOLVE consortium