DR RENÉ WENZEL

Professional career:

12/2003 – now Head of the Department of General Medicine at the Tauernklinikum Zell am See
With a team of 6 medical specialists and 4 assistants, over 5,000 inpatients and over 5,000 outpatients are treated each year. The department has an IMCU as well as a variable bed pool (level concept), a dialysis department including peritoneal dialysis (over 4,000 dialyses/year) as well as a central laboratory (over 300,000 laboratory tests/year). In the OPCU (outpatient primary care unit) established in the last 2 years, acute patients are cared across a range of disciplines.

04/1990 – 11/2003 Department of General Medicine, Essen University Hospital (Germany)
Training as specialist in general medicine, specialist in cardiology and specialist in nephrology. Head of the cardiovascular laboratory from 1996. Head of the outpatient clinic for renal & hypertension diseases and autoimmune diseases from 1998. Senior physician in the department since 1999.

02/1993 – 04/1996 Dept. of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Research, Inselspital Bern (Switzerland)
Training as a specialist in general medicine and cardiology. Interventional cardiology. Clinical research.

04/1995 – 06/1995 Abt. für Kardiologie & kardiovaskuläre Forschung, Mayo-Clinic Rochester (USA)
Klinisches Forschungsprojekt (Endothelin-Antagonisten)

04/1995 – 06/1995 Department of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Research, Mayo Clinic Rochester (USA)
Clinical research project (endothelin antagonists)

12/1989 – 04/1990 Department of Surgery, Ludwigsburg Hospital (Germany)
Assistant in the intensive care unit

Training:

03/2002 Specialist in cardiology
Training at the Inselspital Bern, the Mayo Clinic and Essen Hospital

12/2000 Habilitation
Venia legendi et docendi at the University Hospital of Duisburg-Essen

06/2000 Specialist in nephrology
Training at Essen Hospital

04/1998 Specialist in general medicine
Training at Essen Hospital and Inselspital Bern

12/1991 Doctorate
German Heart Institute Berlin, Free University of Berlin

10/1982 – 11/1989 Studies in Human Medicine
University of Padova (Italy), Free University of Berlin (Germany), University of Heidelberg (Germany)

07/1981 – 10/1982 Military service
Regensburg, Starnberg/Munich

1968 – 1981 Primary school and grammar school
Rome (Italy), Naples (Italy), Regensburg (Germany), 1981 school-leaving certificate with focus on natural sciences

Further training

12/2003 – regular leadership seminars & coaching
Participation in seminars on employee leadership, leadership in the sandwich position, conflict management, meditation & mindfulness training. Continuous in-service coaching. Annual reteaming seminars with the medical staff (ARGO).

09/2016 valid continuing education diploma of the Austrian Medical Association
Currently 542 DFP points, of which 150 DFP points through own lectures and events.
Regular active participation in national and international general medicine, nephrology and cardiology events and congresses (ÖGIM, DGIM/BDI, ÖGH, ÖGN, ESC, ESH etc.)

Leadership experience

12 years Head of the Department of General Medicine, Tauernklinikum Zell am See
14 doctors, including 7 training assistants plus interns

9 years as Medical-Scientific Director of the Health & Nursing School, Tauernklinikum Zell am See
Planning and implementation of training for graduate nursing staff

7 years as Head of Outpatient Department & Cardiovascular Laboratory, University Hospital Essen (Germany)
8 – 10 physicians in the outpatient department and clinical research laboratory

Methodological competence

> 26 years of broad general medicine, nephrology and cardiology experience, laboratory medicine
Decades of experience in the treatment of general medicine patients (broad spectrum), in particular cardiology, nephrology and autoimmune diseases, renal replacement therapy, extracorporeal procedures, transplant medicine

Many years of experience in intensive care medicine including invasive and non-invasive ventilation, cardiovascular monitoring, catecholamine therapy, etc.

Broad general medicine spectrum of technical examinations, especially echocardiography (transthoracic/transoesophageal), cardiovascular function diagnostics, (spiro-) ergometry, rhythm studies, pacemaker therapy, duplex sonography of all organs incl. vessels, guided biopsies (organs, tumours), central access (CVC, Shaldon catheter, Permacath, passive pacemaker electrodes etc.)

Renal replacement therapies incl. dialysis procedures (haemo-/peritoneal dialysis/CAPD, plasmapheresis, lipidapheresis, MARS/Prometheus, regional citrate anticoagulation, etc.), transplant preparation and follow-up care

Invasive & non-invasive haemodynamics /reactivity measurement

Coronary diagnostics and intracoronary interventions (STENT-PCI), i.c. haemodynamics / intravascular ultrasound IVUS (until 2003)

Many years of experience in laboratory medicine (haematology, clinical chemistry, immunofluorescence, ELISA, etc.)

Teaching

11/2014 – present Medical University of Vienna
Visiting professor as part of teaching assignment as teaching hospital with teaching of medical students / practical year

11/2007 – present Paracelsus University Salzburg
Regular lectures as well as bedside teaching

10/2005 – present School of Health & Nursing, Tauernklinikum Zell am See
Over 100 teaching units/year

12/2003 – present National & international lecturer
Over 100 lectures at congresses, seminars and workshops for doctors in training and further education

12/2000 – 07/2011 University Hospital of Duisburg-Essen
Regular lectures and bedside teaching

Scientific activities

07/2008 – 11/2017 Board member of the ÖGH (Austrian Society of Hypertension)
Development of guidelines, events for those affected, congress organisations, health days for the promotion of personal responsibility in the population, promotion of scientific projects

European Hypertension Specialist (ESH) &

Austrian Hypertension Diploma (ÖGH)

07/1993 – 07/2005 Research fellowships
German Research Foundation (DFG): Training scholarship, WE 1772/1-1,
Hoffmann-La Roche study scholarship: “Systemic Endothelin Antagonism in CAD Patients”, German Research Foundation (DFG): In-kind scholarship, approx. € 500,000/year, WE 1772/3-1, 3-2, 3-3

Scientific areas of focus

Interactions between sympathetic nervous system, renin-angiotensin system and endothelin system in vivo in humans

Influence of cardiovascular drugs on the sympathetic nervous system & endothelin system

Integrative therapy of hypertension, cardiorenal syndromes, heart failure, autoimmune diseases

Conducting clinical trials (incl. phase II) of cardiovascular pharmaceuticals/antihypertensives (according to Section 40 AMG).

07/2005 – 07/2009 German Society of Cardiology (DGK)
Member of the “Heart & Kidney” working group

Other qualifications

09/2013 Master’s examination “Photography”
Master of Photography, qualification as “European Photographer (EP)”

07/1981 – present Sports, etc.
German Silver riding badge, ski touring, hiking, biking, tennis, piano

1962 – present Languages
German, English and Italian fluent in spoken and written French (basic knowledge)

1981 – present IT
Operating systems: MacOS (excellent), Microsoft Windows (good), MS Office (very good)
Graphics programmes Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and others (very good)