University Professor Dr. med. Karl Rössler has taken over the professorship for neurosurgery at the Medical University of Vienna and the management of the University Clinic for Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Vienna/Vienna General Hospital with effect from 1 July 2019. He previously held the position of Deputy Clinical Director of the University Clinic for Neurosurgery at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU).
Professor K. Rössler's main research areas in recent years have been neuronavigation and intraoperative imaging in epilepsy surgery, brain tumor surgery and vascular neurosurgery at the University Hospital of Erlangen, one of the world's outstanding centers of excellence for intraoperative imaging.
Pioneering in epilepsy surgery
Professor K. Rössler attracted worldwide interest, especially because of his pioneering discoveries in epilepsy surgery. Within the "International League Against Epilepsy" and as a board member of the "Surgical Therapies Commission", he succeeded in developing new forms of this very important field of research.
In order to enable Professor K. Rössler to continue his research projects, which are being followed with great interest all over the world, under optimal conditions, an intraoperative MRI center is being established at the Vienna University Clinic for Neurosurgery. Together with the University Clinic for Radiology, it is intended to establish an international center of excellence for intraoperative imaging in neurosurgery.
Important: interdisciplinary cooperation
This makes another objective of the specialist Professor K. Rössler obvious: The renowned expert deems it extremely important to expand and deepen the interdisciplinary cooperation with the neurosciences departments of the Medical University of Vienna. For example, a "Comprehensive Center for Clinical Neurosciences" is to be established in order to strengthen the cooperation with the University Clinics for Neurology and Psychiatry, the Clinical Institute of Neurology (Obersteiner Institute) and the Center for Brain Research. The objective: Professor K. Rössler wants above all to integrate findings from basic research for neurosurgical therapies of common diseases into new treatment methods.
This not only concerns epilepsy. Parkinson's disease - and depression - are among the most common diseases in this area. And even with this, the synergies are not yet at an end, because new therapies are also to be developed for patients with brain tumors, for example in cooperation with the "Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna" at the Medical University of Vienna, in order to expand precision medicine in the field of oncology. In many areas interdisciplinary cooperation will be intensified - for example, neurosurgical spine surgery will be linked with trauma surgery and orthopedics or pediatric neurosurgery will be linked with skull base surgery. The Medical University of Vienna is also to play a pioneering role in gender medicine within neurosurgery.
International network of experts
With all these changes, which are intended to optimize research results in Vienna, it is not surprising that University Professor Dr. med. K. Rössler is also promoting the international networking of clinics, research and further education of young colleagues. Of course, this also includes student and postgraduate teaching. For example, there are plans for a separate main lecture on neurosurgery and a block internship in neurosurgery within the medical curriculum at the Medical University of Vienna.
So it will be exciting to see what University professor Dr. med. K. Rössler is going to accomplish in Vienna. But one thing is already clear: the international reputation of the Clinic for Neurosurgery at the Medical University in the General Hospital of the City of Vienna in particular will continue to grow.