Konrad Reinhart

Konrad Reinhart is an intensive care physician and anaesthetist. He has devoted his medical career to the study of sepsis (blood poisoning). His work has shown the medical and health economic importance of sepsis and led to better drug safety in sepsis therapy. Every year in Germany, about 70,000 people die from sepsis, blood poisoning. This makes sepsis the third leading cause of death in Germany. As the population ages and chronic diseases increase, the risk of sepsis also increases. Premature babies who need intensive treatment are also particularly at risk. Sepsis begins with an infection, to which the organism reacts with a violent immune response, thereby harming itself. Finding the source of the infection is a challenge for medical professionals. Mr. Reinhart has made the fight against sepsis his life theme. In studies, he studied the diagnosis and therapy of sepsis. On this basis, guidelines for prevention, diagnosis and therapy have been published, which help to increase the survival rate. He and his team have developed an antibody that can possibly block the immune response that is excessive in sepsis. Konrad Reinhart is the initiator of the German Sepsis Society, the first specialist society for sepsis worldwide. At the international level, he founded the Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA) and introduced the topic of sepsis to the World Health Organization (WHO). In current studies and projects, he researches the long-term consequences of the disease in order to better understand and treatment.