Franz Always

Franz Always (* 20th September 1967 in Courtepin , Canton of Friborg ; hometown in Thun , canton Bern ) is a Swiss cardiac and vascular surgeon and director of the Foundation SwissTransplant .

Life

After completing his basic education at the St. Michel high school in Freiburg, Franz Immer completed his studies in human medicine in Freiburg and Bern. Following the state examination at the University of Bern , Immer worked as an assistant doctor in the fields of internal medicine , surgery and pediatrics in Sumiswald, Interlaken, Biel, Basel and Bern. In 2002 Immer was a visiting physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mn, USA. As a senior physician in cardiovascular surgery at the University Clinic in Bern , Franz Immer obtained the FMH specialist title for cardiovascular surgery in 2002 and was in charge of clinical research at the Clinic for Cardiac and Thoracic Vascular Surgery from 2006–2008. In January 2007, Immer received the title of private lecturer in cardiac and thoracic vascular surgery from the Medical Faculty of the University of Bern. Since May 2008 he has been the director of Swisstransplant, the Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation. Franz Immer is married and has four children. He lives in Thun (BE).

International activities

Franz Immer is involved in numerous international committees for organ donation and transplantation. He has been a member of the Council of Europe as a Swiss delegate since 2014. In this function he headed a working group from various European countries, which is developing a study on effective measures to increase the number of organ donations. Franz Immer has been representing the South Alliance of Transplantation (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Switzerland) at the EU's Competent Authorities in Brussels since 2017. In autumn 2019 Franz Immer was elected chairman of the European Committee on Organ Transplantation (CD-P-TO) 2020/2021.

Scientific activities / publications

As director of the Swisstransplant Foundation, Franz Immer conducts research in the field of organ donation and transplantation and publishes on topics related to transplant medicine . In 2016, among other things, an article with the title “More organs for transplants” and a publication on organ donation after cardiac arrest (“Organ donation after cardiocirculatory death in Switzerland: a Review”) appeared. In 2017 he wrote the article “Attitudes towards organ donation and relation to wish to donate posthumously”, which was published in the Swiss Medical Weekly magazine. In the field of cardiovascular surgery, Franz Immer has mainly dealt with the influence and optimization of deep hypothermic cardiac arrest in surgery of the aorta and has published numerous papers.

Honors / awards

Won the Hans G. Borst Award for Thoracic Aortic Surgery of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), 2004. Immer FF, Hagen U, Berdat PA, Eckstein FS, Carrel TP: Risk factors for secondary dilatation of the aorta after acute type A aortic dissection. Annual meeting of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
Winner of the poster prize of the Swiss Academy for Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery, 1999. Immer FF, Seiler AM, Pfammatter JP, Bachmann D, Printzen G, Carell TP, Stocker FP: Prognostic value of troponin-I after pediatric cardiac surgery.
Winner of the poster prize of the Swiss Society for Pediatrics, 1996. Immer FF, Pfammatter JP, Seiler AM, Printzen G, Peheim E: Troponin-T: Diagnostic value for recording myocardial damage in childhood.

Web links

The new director, PD Dr. Franz Immer, introduces himself , in swisstransplant news . Ed. Swisstransplant - Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Bern, September 2008. pp. 3–4.

Individual evidence

^ Franz Immer: The new director, PD Dr. Franz Immer, introduces himself. (PDF) In: swisstransplant news. Swisstransplant - Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, September 2008, accessed on June 26, 2017 .
↑ Walter Bellwald: "Every year there are 100 deaths because we cannot find any organs". Interview with Franz Immer. In: 1815.ch. April 4, 2019, accessed on April 20, 2019 (see Article Info section at the bottom).
↑ Swisstransplant Annual Report 2016. (PDF) In: Swisstransplant Annual Report 2016. Swisstransplant - Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, July 2017, accessed on June 26, 2017 (German, French).
^ Franz Immer takes up leadership of the european committee on organ transplantation at the council of europe. In: swisstransplant.org. October 14, 2019, accessed October 23, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Always, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss heart and vascular surgeon and director of the Swisstransplant Foundation
DATE OF BIRTH	20th September 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH	Courtepin , Switzerland

[1] Franz Immer: The new director, PD Dr. Franz Immer, introduces himself. (PDF) In: swisstransplant news. Swisstransplant - Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, September 2008, accessed on June 26, 2017 .

[2] Walter Bellwald: "Every year there are 100 deaths because we cannot find any organs". Interview with Franz Immer. In: 1815.ch. April 4, 2019, accessed on April 20, 2019 (see Article Info section at the bottom).

[3] Swisstransplant Annual Report 2016. (PDF) In: Swisstransplant Annual Report 2016. Swisstransplant - Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, July 2017, accessed on June 26, 2017 (German, French).

[4] Franz Immer takes up leadership of the european committee on organ transplantation at the council of europe. In: swisstransplant.org. October 14, 2019, accessed October 23, 2019 .