Volkmar Falk

Professor Volkmar Falk is medical director and director of the DHZB Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin and Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charité Berlin. After successfully completing his preliminary studies and his doctorate at the University of Bonn he began his basic surgical training at the University in Göttingen and completed his residency at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Herzzentrum Leipzig. From 1998 to 2003 he held the position of a senior surgeon there, with an interruption of his clinical work for one year as a research fellow at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. In 2001 he completed his “Habilitation” (German post-doctoral university teaching qualification) and in 2003 he became a senior consultant. From 2009-2014 Falk was appointed professor and director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital in Zurich. In 2014 he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charite Berlin and became the medical director and director of the DHZB Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin. His main areas of clinical and academic research are in the field of endoscopic, robotic and minimally invasive cardiac surgery and image guided transcatheter therapies. He was co-founder of the Innovation Center for Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) at the University of Leipzig funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF). During his time in Zürich he established numerous collaborations with the ETH Zurich and among other projects initiated the “Zurich Heart” Project, an interdisciplinary project at the interface of medical engineering and surgery for the development of mechanical circulatory assist systems. He is currently PI of the project which received intense funding over the last 3 years. Falk is the author or coauthor of over 450 scientific publications (listred in Pubmed, Hirsh-Index 49) and serves in various functions (Board member, president, Committees) in numerous international professional societies (EACTS, ESC, DGTHG, SGHC, ISMICS and others). He is on the editorial board of a number of journals in the field, among the the European Heart Journal (IF 14,5). Recently he has served on a number of International Guideline-Committees and is Coauthour of the current ESC ESC/EACTS Guidelines on myocardfial revascularization, valvular heart disease and heart failure.