Meinhard Classen

 

1962 Medical degree (Dr.med.) at Bonn University

1962 - 1970 Internship and appointment as resident and lecturer at Vienna/Austria, Stuttgart,  Ludwigsburg and Erlangen hospitals.

1970 - 1974 Deputy chief of Medical Department of University Hospital Erlangen. Director of the 1st research laboratory of gastroenterology. Director of the gastroenterological endoscopy department

1974 - 1979 Senior physician and chief of the 1st Medical Department of the Hamburg-Barmbek General Hospital (general internal medicine with its focus on gastroenterology).

1975 Appointment as professor of medicine.

1979 - 1984 Professor and chairman of internal medicine. Head of the department of gastroenterology at the Centre for Internal Medicine of the Frankfurt/Main Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.

1985 - 2002 Director of the 2nd Medical Department and outpatients clinic of the Technische Universität München.

2002 Emeritus Professor of Medicine

Research interests (selected overview)

  • Prevention of digestive cancer

Member of the Safety Committee of the PRISMA Study (preventive intervention study on neoplastic changes of the stomach)

  • Clinical trials (RCT) on the effects of Cimetidine, Ranitidine, Omeprazol etc
  • Clinical trials on ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer, Crohn's disease, acute and chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer
  • Multiple studies on functional mechanisms of parietal cells and endocrine cells of the gastric mucous membrane (with U. Seidler, W. Schepp, C. Prinz)
  • Control and functions of gastrointestinal hormones (with V. Schusdziarra)
  • Studies on the enterocerebral axis (with R. Schick)
  • Intestinal mucous membrane immunology (with H. Dancygier, E. Deutsch, E. Endres)
  • Influence of Prostaglandin E1, E2 on the secretion of the human stomach and duodenal contents (first studies in humans)
  • Host reactions of Helicobacter pylori infection (with C. Prinz, M. Gerhardt)
  • Development of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy

  • First descriptions of technical procedures:

Endosocpic polypectomy of gastric tumors with the electrical Erlangen-type snare Endoscopic sphincterotomy of the duodenal papillae with the Erlangen-type papillotome (with L. Demling)

The nasobiliary drain (with D. Wurbs)

Endosocpic ultrasound in the upper digestive tract of humans (with W.D. Strohm)

and evaluation of its diagnostic capacity with tumors of the GI tract (with T. Rösch)

Peroral enteroscopy of jejunum and ileum

Laparoscopic cholecystotomy for the removal of stones and polyps from the intact gallbladder (with E. Frimberger)

Electromagnetic shock wave lithotripsy (with H. Neuhaus)

The "intelligent" laser for lithotripsy (with H. Neuhaus)

Service

Co-Chairman of IDCA: Induction of cancer awareness by stimulation and organisation of conferences and campaigns on national and international level.

Memberships

Academia Leopoldina (German Academy for physicians and scientists)
Foreign member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Foreign member of the Kazakhstan Academy of Science 
Foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Science
Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences
Honorary member of the American Society for Gastroenterological Endoscopy
Honorary member of the Austrian Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Argentinian Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Honorary member of the British Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Czechoslovakian Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Gastroenterology Society of the former GDR
Honorary member of the German Society of Digestive and Metabolism Disorders
Honorary member of the German Society of Endoscopy
Honorary member of the Hungarian Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Portuguese Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Slovak Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the Sudanese Society of Gastroenterology
Honorary member of the German Association of Study of the Liver (GASL)
Corresponding member of the Swiss Society of Gastroenterology
Corresponding member of the South African Society of Gastroenterology
Corresponding member of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology
Corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia
Member of the American Gastroenterological Association
Member of the Governing Council of the African Institute of Digestive Diseases
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians London
Member of multiple German Medical Societies

Functions as Officer of Medical Societies

Past-Secretary of the German Society of Gastroenterology
Past-President of the German Society of Gastroenterology
Past-President of the German Society of Internal Medicine and of its 100th Annual Congress
Past-President of the European Congress of Digestive Endoscopy (1980)
Past-Vice-President of European Society of Digestive Endoscopy (ESGE)
Honorary President of International Gastro-Surgical-Club
Secretary-General of the World Organisation of Gastroenterology - OMGE (1990 - 1998)
President of OMGE  (1998 - 2002)
Vice-President of the World Organisation of Digestive Endoscopy - OMED (1990 - 1997)

Honours

Dr.med. honoris causa of Istanbul University, November 1992
Dr.med. honoris causa of Iasi University, June 1996
Dr.med. honoris causa of Athens University, November 1996
Dr.med. honoris causa of Wroclaw University, March 2005
Schindler Prize of the European Society for Endoscopy, 1970
Thannhauser Prize of the German Society of Digestive and Metabolic Diseases, 1973
Fresenius Prize for further medical education and Congress design, Düsseldorf, 1992
Thannhauser Medal of the German Society of Digestive and Metabolic Diseases, 2006
Order of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany, Munich, 1995
Order of Merit of the Bavarian Government, Munich 2000
Order of Merit 1st class for Arts and Science of the Republic of Austria 2003
Golden Award of Honour of the Association of Bavarian Internal Specialists, Munich, 1995

 

 

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