Prof. Christoph Zenger, President
Member of the Faculty of Law and the Director of the Center for Health Law and Management at the University of Bern (CH).

Professor Christoph Andreas Zenger studied at the University of Bern (PhD), the University of Aix-Marseille (F), and at the Harvard Law School (Cambridge, USA; LL.M.). He completed his professional education as an Attorney at Law and Notary Public.

Other actual and former functions:

• Partner in a law firm
• Co-editor of the Swiss Journal of Health Law
• Member of the board of the Institut de droit de la santé BENEFRI (Bern / Neuchâtel / Fribourg)
• Member of the board of the Spitalzentrum Biel AG; Member of the Cantonal Ethics Committee for Clinical Research in Human Subjects
• Member of the Federal Commission for Prevention and Health Promotion
• Member of the Federal AIDS-Commission
• Member of the board of the Swiss Federal Association for Biomedical Ethics
• Member of the Board of European Health Management Association (EHMA)
• Member of the Board of the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA)
• Member of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics (ASLME).

Dr. Matti Aapro
Dean of the Multidisciplinary Oncology Institute, Genolier, Switzerland. 

Dr. Matti Aapro received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He was a fellow at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson and was the founding chair of the Medical and Radiation Therapy Department at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan.

Other professional activities he has been involved with include:

• Executive Board Member, International Society for Geriatric Oncology (SIOG)
• Member of the Board of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)
• Past-President of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), and was on its Board of Directors for 2012-2014.
• Chair of the scientific and organizing committees of UICC’s (International Union against Cancer) World Cancer Congress of 2008 in Geneva, and 2010 in Shenzhen, China.
• Member of ESMO 2012 and EMCC 2013 (European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress) Scientific Committees
• Coordinator of the SPCC programme of the European School of Oncology
• Editor-in-Chief of Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology
• Associate Editor of Annals of Oncology, and Associate Editor for the geriatric section of the Oncologist.
• Founding editor of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology

He has authored more than 250 publications and his major interests are new drug development, breast cancer, cancer in the elderly, and supportive care.

Dr. Aapro has received the 2010 Acta Oncologica Award and the 2012 ASCO B.J. Kennedy prize.

Full Publications List

Prof. Hans Gombotz
Former head of the Department of Anesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy at the General Hospital Linz, Austria

Professor Hans Gombotz successfully introduced PBM as new standard of care at the General Hospital Linz, Austria.

Prof. Gombotz studied at the Karl-Franzens-University, Graz, Austria before being appointed as a Medical Doctor in 1977. In 1981 he became a Specialist for Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine in Graz and in 1990 he was appointed as a Lecturer for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Medicine at the University of Graz. In 1996 he was appointed as Associate University Professor at the University of Graz. Prof. Gombotz was the Head of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care at the General Hospital in Linz, Austria from 2001 to 2014.

From 2013 to 2016 he was the Chairman of the Patient Blood Management Project of the European Commission. This included the clinical management of PBM pilot projects in 5 European University Hospitals, the development of an official PBM hospital implementation guide and an official guide for Health Authorities for Building National PBM Programs.

From 2007 to 2014 he was responsible for the Implementation of Austria’s 1^st hospital-wide PBM program at the General Hospital Linz, Austria and was a Member of the International Faculty of the Western Australia Department of Health PBM Project from 2008 to 2012.

In 2010 he developed Austria’s 1^st Postgraduate PBM Course at the University of Graz and from 2005 to 2010 he was the principal investigator in the First and Second Austrian Benchmark Studies on Blood Use in Elective Surgery.

Prof. Gombotz is the co-author of numerous PBM-related publications and textbooks including:

Patient Blood Management Thieme Stuttgart New York 2013 2^nd Edition (Gombotz H, Zacharowski K, Spahn DR.)

Supporting Patient Blood Management (PBM) in the EU. A Practical Implementation Guide. (Gombotz H, Hofmann A, Nørgaard A, Kastner P.) 2016

Full Publications List

A/Prof. Dr. Axel Hofmann

Dr. Hofmann is a Doctor of Medical Science and holds a Master’s Degree in Economics. His main activities are related to PBM research and the implementation of PBM programs in the public health sector and large hospital systems. With his background in health economics and outcomes research, he has specialized in the field of Patient Blood Management. 

He currently has several academic affiliations in Europe and Australia:

• Visiting Professor University of Zurich, Department of Anesthesiology
• Visiting Professor, Institute of Anaesthesiology, University Hospital Zurich
• Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Surgery, University of Western Australia
• Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University.

Dr. Hofmann is well published in international peer-reviewed journals and is an invited speaker on Patient Blood Management at numerous universities, medical schools, government agencies and international symposia.

Full Publications List