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Voices in Leadership During Crises: Karl Lauterbach
This event streamed live on our Facebook and on Voices in Leadership website on Thursday, June 4, 2020.
Germany has been a COVID-19 global success story because of its strong testing protocols, stable healthcare provisions and hospital systems, and the lowest death-toll in all of Europe. With this in mind, Germany recently relaxed some of its prevention measures. But after seeing large crowds gathering in his home city of Cologne, expert Karl Lauterbach warned that coronavirus could start spreading more quickly again, possibly returning to exponential growth. Join us to hear Dr. Lauterbach consider and discuss effective preparation for loosening COVID-19 prevention measures, and successful confrontation, and management, of the virus going forward.
Karl Wilhelm Lauterbach (born 1963) is full professor of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Cologne (Germany), Member of the Deutsche Bundestag (MdB) and an Adjunct Faculty Member of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston).
He studied Medicine in Aachen and in Dusseldorf (Germany) and in San Antonio (Texas, US) and received his first doctoral degree at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine at the Nuclear Research Centre in Julich (Germany).
He studied health policy and management and epidemiology as a post-doc at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, and received a degree as a Master of Public Health and as a Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) in Health Policy and Management. He was a fellow of the Program of Ethics and the Professions at Harvard (1992) and a fellow in Medical Ethics at the Harvard Medical School (1993). Since 1998 Dr. Lauterbach is Director of the Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Cologne Medical School, Germany, employing about 20 scientists (physicians, economists, statisticians). Since 2005 he has been a Member of the Deutsche Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). From 2013 to 2019 he was deputy chairman of the Social Democratic parliamentary group. Since 2019 he is the speaker for consumer protection in the Social Democratic parliamentary group.
Since 2008 Dr. Lauterbach is also an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard University.
Dr. Lauterbach´s expertise covers a wide range of topics in health policy, including cost effectiveness research, evidence based medicine and quality research. From 1998 to 2005 he was a leading medical advisor of the German government. He was the personal chief advisor of Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt for 8 years, a direct advisor of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) and has had considerable influence on the health care reforms during the last decade in Germany and other European countries. His expertise has helped to strengthen the evidence base of health policy decisions within the German public health insurance system, including the risk-adjustment of efficient payment schemes for providers and for sickness funds and the implementation of disease management programs. As a leading law maker, he was involved in more than 80 health care laws.
Dr. Lauterbach was also a member of the supervisory board of Rhon-Klinikum AG, the largest private hospital group in Germany from 2001 to 2013. Rhon-Klinikum AG manages 53 hospitals at 42 sites in ten federal states, ranging from city clinics to university hospitals. Dr. Lauterbach was also consultant for large sickness funds in Germany, which serve over 30 million individuals. His expertise was requested by major international companies within the pharmaceutical industry and providers of ancillary services on topics of pricing, effective care, and improving quality.
Dr. Lauterbach is author of more than 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed international journals in the field of health economics and health policy. His books include standard teaching books for students of health politics and medical students in Germany. He also authored bestselling books for a general audience in social policy (“Der Zweiklassenstaat. Wie die Privilegierten Deutschland ruinieren.”) and health policy (“Gesund im kranken System. Ein Wegweiser.”)
Within his international academic networks, he advised governments and governmental agencies in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. The Commonwealth Fund, New York, invited him several times as keynote speaker to comment on health care reforms in the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of the Flagship Program of the World Bank and a consultant of the International Development Bank.
He is one of the leading experts for the COVID 19 Pandemic in Germany and one of the most important policy makers in the containment of the COVID 19 Pandemic.
