Jörg Rüdiger Siewert receives the University Medal

For more than eight years Dr. Jörg Rüdiger Siewert has served as Chief Medical Officer at the Freiburg Medical Center – and upon his departure,  Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen-Schiewer, Rector of the University of Freiburg, paid him a special tribute: For his outstanding service to the Freiburg Medical Center and the University Heart Center Freiburg – Bad Krozingen and for his standard-setting contribution to the development of university medicine, Siewert has received the University Medal. “Jörg Rüdiger Siewert combines scientific excellence with planning foresight in a unique manner,” Schiewer says. “As a formulator of future-oriented university medicine unifying ideal patient care with world-class research, he gave Freiburg as a medical location important new impetus.”

During his term of office as Chief Medical Officer Siewert was responsible overall for all areas of Medicine as well as for the strategy, organisation, and running of the Medical Center. “He had the responsibility for the Freiburg Medical Center in an extraordinarily challenging time, and it is thanks to him as a remarkable scientist and manager that the Center has found its way back to success,” Schiewer stresses. The successful new orientation is reflected in patient satisfaction as well as in the scientific innovative strength of the Center, he adds. Among the special achievements cited by Rector Schiewer is the 2012 merger between the University Heart Center with the Herz-Zentrum Bad Krozingen. “That created one of the largest and most respected Heart Centers in Germany, one which overcomes the boundaries between the medical disciplines in order to find new paths to treatment,” Schiewer says. In addition it was possible under Siewert’s leadership to further strengthen Freiburg’s strong position in cancer treatment with the takeover of the Clinic for Tumor Biology in 2015, he adds. Furthermore, with new building projects such as the new Tumor Center and the planned Center for Pediatrics, the Chief Medical Officer helped created infrastructure to meet the needs of medicine in the 21st century and provide the necessary space for innovation in research and patient care.

Jörg Rüdiger Siewert, born in 1940 in Berlin, was provisional head from March 2010 and Chief Medical Officer from November 2011 of the Freiburg Medical Center, Medical Director of the University Heart Center Freiburg – Bad Krozingen and head of the Medical Center board. His term of office ended on 30 October 2018. Until 2011 he was Chief Medical Officer of the Heidelberg University Hospitals. From 1987 to 2007 he was head of the Klinikum Rechts der Isar, part of the Technische Universität München; from 1982 to 2007 he was also Medical Director of the polyclinic and surgical hospital there. From 2006 to 2012 Siewert was also chairman of the association of university hospitals in Germany. His scientific special field is surgery of the stomach and oesophagus.