Franz F. Immer

- MD, Master Degree in Coaching and Leadership

- Assistant Professor, medical Consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery

From 1987 until 1993 I earned the medical degree in Bern. The apprentice years and its years of travel followed within different training positions in internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics, until I completed the formation for consultant in cardiovascular surgery in Basel and Bern.

With the experience of a heart surgeon and as the head of the aortic clinic, it allowed myself to operate on one hand, and on the other hand, to get to know the importance of its indication and its aftercare within this highly specialized area.

In January 2006, I took over the lead in clinical research within the department of cardiovascular surgery. In collaboration with my team I was able to achieve multiple scientific success.

Due to a temporary employment abroad at Mayo-Clinic in Rochester, USA, I was able to get an insight in a different health system and to expand my scientific curriculum.

In January 2007 I got the degree as an assistant professor in cardiovascular surgery by the medical faculty of the University of Bern.

In 2007 I completed a training course in Leadership and Coaching in USA and UK, where I graduated with a Master degree.

The experiences I gathered with lung transplanted patients and patients on the renal dialysis ward including shunt surgery within children’s hospital quickly showed me how important transplantation medicine is today.

At the Inselspital Bern I was directly involved in heart transplantation thus enabling me to be one of the first being involved in cardiac assist devices and its development, and I was able to collaborate with the organ procurement team.

It was a path breaking experience within my study, to witness people being stabilized on an assist device and how a transplantation can change one’s life back to normal, full of vitality and quality of life.

In my personal environment I can find the possibility to revive.

During inspiring discussions, new thoughts and ideas are emerging. There I can gain my energy to sort out new things.

The light-hearted laughter, my wife and my two kids, the joy of life and the belief in future are giving me the drive necessary to stand up for people waiting for an organ. They rely on us tirelessly, but powerfully working day-by-day for organ donation – from detection until aftercare of transplanted patients.