Personnel
Farewell ceremony for Prof. Neugebauer
Rüdersdorf, 16 April 2025
About 50 colleagues, companions and friends met for a scientific symposium on 8 April in honor of Prof. Edmund Neugebauer, past MHB president and senior professor of outcomes research.
One of the most influential pioneers of his generation in outcomes research, Edmund Neugebauer published more than 1,000 papers, over 600 of them as original articles. He wrote and edited numerous books addressed to the scientific community which also attracted attention as knowledge source, guideline and inspiration for decision makers in politics and the public health sector. He was a co-founder and long-term chair of the national network of outcomes research and the editor of two key textbooks in this field. In 2016 he was elected dean and academic director of the MHB. As the MHB grew and added further faculties, the MHB Senate elected him to the office of president in 2019. From 2022 until today he served as senior professor of outcomes research.
Initiator of research centers and integrated working groups
In his laudation, MHB president Prof. Hans-Uwe Simon acknowledged the impact of Prof. Neugebauer’s internationally renowned research achievements on the development of the MHB: “We have a lot to thank him for; his untiring dedication was instrumental in shaping the MHB research profile with its key focus on health services research. He has played a key role in initiating research centers and integrated working groups across disciplines. The center for outcomes research we founded here in Rüdersdorf constitutes an interdisciplinary and translational platform for scientific exchange and ensures increased visibility for outcomes research at the MHB. Moreover, the start of the Master course in outcomes research, a unique format, is mainly due to Edmund Neugebauer’s persistence and personal commitment. These tremendous achievements at the MHB would not have been possible without him.”
Numerous companions and colleagues including past and present chairpersons of the national network of outcomes researchers had come to jointly review individual stations of his comprehensive activities between health, academia and society and to appreciate his remarkable life’s work.
Impressions from the symposium (photos: Stephanie Timm)
Prof. Monika Klinkhammer-Schalke, former chair of the national network for health services research and director of the Institute of Quality Assurance and Outcomes Research/University of Regensburg, looked back on years of successful cooperation. She underlined Neugebauer’s consistent focus on patient orientation and in this context mentioned the patient university which he recently initiated at the MHB.
Prof. Neugebauer was visibly moved when he expressed his gratitude for all laudations; he gave specific thanks to his family and his wife whose support and assistance had helped him to dedicate his life to research and the benefit of patients. He said he regretted to say that our health system - very expensive and unfortunately dysfunctional in many aspects – appeared to have lost sight of patients as the very reason for its existence. He expressed concern that many research findings, including patient participation, might not sufficiently be considered in current reform efforts. He concluded that much remained to be done about the focus in healthcare; his personal focus would now primarily be on his family and his four grandchildren.
Other speakers to honor Prof. Neugebauer, apart from Prof. Hans-Uwe Simon and Prof. Monika Klinkhammer-Schalke, were: Dawid Pieper, MHB professor of outcomes and health systems research; Prof. Holger Pfaff (director, Institute of Medical Sociology, Outcomes Research and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cologne); Prof. Wolfgang Hoffmann (chair, German Network of Health Services Research/DNVF); Martin Heinze, MHB professor of psychiatry and psychotherapy; MHB chancellor Dr. Gerrit Fleige; Hannah Leichsenring, assistant to the MHB executive committee; Stephan Gretschel, MHB professor of general visceral surgery with a focus on health services research.