Team
MeDeMSA Coordinator
Assist. Prof.in Dr.in Alessandra Fanciulli, MD, PhD
Dr. Fanciulli holds a tenure-track professorship in Autonomic Neuroscience and is the Deputy Director of the Innsbruck Dysautonomia Center at the Department of Neurology of the Medical University of Innsbruck. Her research focuses on autonomic failure in movement disorders. She is the MeDeMSA Research Group coordinator and Leader of the Project Area for personalized best medical care for people living with MSA.
MeDeMSA Project Area Leaders
PD Dr. Florian Krismer, MD, PhD
Dr. Krismer is a senior consultant and lecturer at the Department of Neurology, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria. He worked as a researcher in the field of movement disorders since 2010 with a particular research focus on atypical parkinsonian disorders. Dr. Krismer has contributed to the definition of the natural history, genetic risk factors and markers of progression of atypical parkinsonian disorders and on improving the diagnostic accuracy in atypical parkinsonian disorders. He leads the Project Area on developing diagnostic algorithm for early stage MSA.
Assoc.-Prof.in, PD Dr.in Beate Jahn, PhD
Beate Jahn, Dipl.-Math. oec., Dr.rer.soc.oec., is an Associate Professor of Public Health and Health Data & Decision Science, the Coordinator of the Program on Personalized and Precision Medicine and Director of the Practical Hands-on Workshop 'Modeling Approaches for HTA' at the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment at UMIT TIROL, Austria. She is Past President of the Austrian Regional ISPOR Chapter, Former Vice President of the Society for Medical Decision Making, a member of the COVID-19 Future Operations Platform (FUOP) and serves as expert in the European Commission Initiative on Colorectal Cancer (ECICC). Assoc.-Prof. Jahn leads the MeDeMSA Project Area 4 HTA-supported medical decision making in MSA.
Prof.in Martina Schmidhuber, PhD
Martina Schmidhuber is Professor for Health Care Ethics at the University of Graz and Chair of the Institute of Moral Theology. Her research focuses on ethical aspects of dementia, human rights in healthcare, ethical aspects of aging and intercultural competence in hospitals. She is the leader of the MeDeMSA Project Area 5 „Ethical and regulatory aspects of medical decision making in MSA“.
MeDeMSA Team
Alexa Blum, MSc MSc
Alexa Blum is a clinical psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, and Medical Psychology at the University Clinic for Psychiatry II. Since 2021, as a clinical psychologist on the neurological and neurosurgical units, she has been treating and advising patients and their relatives. Therefore, she has experience working with patients who have chronic illnesses, as well as those experiencing acute psychological distress. She will provide psychological assessments and psychosocial interventions for individuals living with MSA.
Dr.in Caroline Breitegger, MD
Caroline Breitegger received her medical degree in 2020 from the Medical University of Graz. After graduating she improved her medical skills by working in Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Neurology. In 2015, she enrolled in the master's programme "Applied ethics" at the University of Graz, where she focused on bioethical topics. Since April 2023, Dr Breitegger is working with PL Prof. Schmidhuber on Ethical & regulatory aspects of decision making in MSA.
Dr.in Bianca Caliò, MD
Bianca Caliò received her MD degree in June 2022 from the Sapienza University of Rome and previously trained in the Movement Disorders Unit of the Sant’Andrea Hospital in Rome. In October 2022, she started a clinical internship at the Medical University of Innsbruck, developing a wider interest for MSA and autonomic nervous system disorders. For MeDeMSA Dr Caliò will help develop personalized best medical care strategies for people living with MSA.
Dr. Frank Jagusch, MD
Dr Jagusch is a PhD student at the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. His current research area is movement disorders with a particular interest in biomarker research for Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinsonism. He graduated in human medicine from the Medical University of Innsbruck in 2021. He then began a Master's degree in Medical Law at the LeopoldFranzens University of Innsbruck, which he will complete in 2023.
Igor Kuchin, MD MSc
Igor Kuchin, MD MSc is a Junior Scientist at the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment at UMIT TIROL, Austria. He has broad expertise in the health sector spanning across medicine, industry, patient activism, and scientific research. Igor will provide health economics expertise on the MeDeMSA Project Area 4 "HTA-supported medical decision making in MSA."
Svenja Schmidt, BSc
Svenja Schmidt is a physiotherapist at the University Clinic for Neurology with a focus on movement disorders, especially Parkinson's disease. She has experience in acute and rehabilitative settings. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in neurorehabilitation research and she regularly gives lectures and teaching presentations.
Medical Technical Assistant
Karoline Radl, DMTF
Karoline Radl is a medical technical assistant of the Dysautonomia Center at the Department of Neurology of the Innsbruck University Hospital. She facilitates the cooperation and communication among the MeDeMSA keyplayers with a three-tier coordination plan.
MeDeMSA Scientific Advisory Board
Dr.in Marjan Arvandi, MSc, PhD
Marjan Arvandi is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment at the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT TIROL) in Hall i. T., Austria.
She works as a Senior Statistician at the Center for Statistical Consulting and Continuing Education (CSCCE) on different scientific projects and teaches biostatistics, survival analysis and metaanalysis. She is the Director and Coordinator of the HTADS courses introduction and advanced systematic reviews and meta-analysis and Coordinator of the HTADS course “Causal Inference in Observational Studies and Clinical Trials Affected by Treatment Switching: A Practical Hands-on Workshop” and Coordinator of the HTADS course "Advanced Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis.
Marjan holds a Bachelor degree in Statistics at the Isfahan University of Technology in Iran, acBachelor and Master of Science in Statistics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, andva doctoral degree in Public Health at UMIT TIROL.
The main research interests of Marjan Arvandi are statistics and data science in health and life sciences, survival analysis and multivariate methods, public health and epidemiology with special focus on causal inference, economic evaluation, and applying evidence-based methods and advanced meta-analysis in the context of public health. The main research disease areas are cardiovascular diseases, stroke, cancer, thyroid disorders and healthy aging. Her methodological fields of interest are advanced statistical and epidemiological modeling, causal inference, mediation analysis and evidence synthesis. She is part of the UMIT research program for implementing causal inference methods for the adjustment of time-varying confounding. She is a member of the Austrian Statistical Society (ÖSG) and the Austrian Society of Epidemiology (OeGEpi)
Assoc.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Georg GOEBEL
Georg GOEBEL is an expert in medical statistics and informatics. He coordinated the MUI Biobank and will provide expertise in statistics, biobanking and machine-learning for PA2 and PA3.
Prof.in Birgit Högl, MD
The scientific work of Prof. Högl focuses on REM-sleep behavior disorders (RBD) and restless legs syndrome. BH’s group has developed new polysomnographic techniques and contributed to diagnosis and treatment guidelines for sleep disorders. BH will provide clinical and scientific advice for sleep-related outcome measures in people living with MSA.
Dr.in Andrea Knoflach-Gabis MAS, MSc
Dr Andrea Knoflach-Gabis is the medical director of the Tyrolean Regional Institute for Integrated Palliative and Hospice Care. She will cooperate with the MeDeMSA staff for the mobile palliative care of wheelchair-bound people with MSA, set-up, analysis and interpretation of the palliation-related study outcome measures.
Prof. Stefan Lorenzl, MD
The scientific work of Prof Lorenzl focuses on palliative care for neurodegenerative diseases, in particular on patient- and care-giver centered outcome measures and integration of telemedicine applications for outpatient palliative support. He will provide advice on palliative and telemedicine interventional measures.
Prof. Andreas Schlager, MD, MSc, MSc
Prof. Schlager is the Director of the Innsbruck Pain Medicine and Acute Pain Service. His main research areas are pain, palliative and complementary medicine. He will contribute to the palliative and pain care of people living with MSA and provide scientific advice for palliation-related outcome measures.
Prof.in Daniela Schmid, PhD, MSc
Prof. Schmid is the Head of the Division for Quantitative Methods in Public Health and Health Services Research at UMIT TIROL. She applies advanced epidemiological and statistical methods in the investigation of public-health questions and the development of evidence-based guidelines, epidemiologic studies, clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. She will provide expertise in quantitative data analysis.
Gudrun Schönherr, MSc
GS is the Head of the Neurorehabilitation Team at the Innsbruck University Hospital, with dedicated expertise in the neurorehabilitation of Parkinsonian Disorders. For MeDeMSA, she will contribute to the set-up of the in-person and telemedicine neurorehabilitation program for people living with MSA.
Prof.in Anette Schrag, MD, PhD
The scientific work of Prof Schrag focuses on the clinical and epidemiological aspects of atypical parkinsonian disorders. Prof Schrag initiated clinical trials to improve the quality of life, motor and non-motor symptoms in people with late-stage parkinsonism. For MeDeMSA, she will provide advice on quality of life and caregiver burden outcome measures.
Prof. Werner Poewe, MD, PhD
Professor Werner Poewe is emeritus Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. He completed a residency in clinical neurology and psychiatry at the University of Innsbruck and then a British Council research fellowship at University College and Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London. He previously served as a senior lecturer in the Department of Neurology at the University of Innsbruck and as a professor of neurology and acting director of the Department of Neurology at the Virchow Hospital of the Free University of Berlin in Germany before becoming director of the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck in 1995 – a position he held until 2019.
Professor Poewe has served as president of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS), chair of the MDS European Section, president of the Austrian Society of Neurology, and president of the Austrian Parkinson’s Disease Society. He is a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association and French Neurological Society and an honorary member of the German Neurological Society, Japanese Neurological Society, and MDS. He has received the Walther Birkmayer Prize from the Austrian Parkinson’s Disease Society, the Dingebauer Prize from the German Neurological Society, and the Research Excellence Award from the Medical University and Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck.
Professor Poewe’s main research interests are in the field of Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders, with particular emphasis on the diagnosis, natural history and clinical trials in the fields of Parkinson’s disease and atypical parkinsonism. He has authored or co-authored more than 800 original articles and reviews in the field of movement disorders with a total of more than 112.000 citations and an h-index of 159 (Google Scholar). Professor Poewe is listed among the top 1% of the most highly cited researchers‘ in neuroscience (Clarivate Web of Science 2022).
Prof. Klaus Seppi, MD
Prof Seppi’s research focuses on evidence-based medicine and biomarker development, especially clinical and neuroimaging markers. He was involved in the development of rating scales and made significant contributions to the definition of the natural history and prodromal markers of parkinsonian disorders. KS will provide his clinical and scientific advice in MSA diagnosis, management and trial design.
Prof. Uwe Siebert, MD, MPH, MSc, ScD
Prof. Siebert is Professor of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health-Technology Assessment (HTA) at UMIT TIROL. His research focuses on applying evidence-based quantitative and translational methods from public health and medicine in the framework of medical decision making, clinical guideline development, patient guidance and HTA. He works with and advises several HTA and government agencies. He will provide scientific advice on causal analysis of trial data and assessment of personalized test-treatment strategies.
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Prof.in Barbara Sperner-Unterweger, MD
Barbara Sperner-Unterweger is Professor for Psychiatry at the Innsbruck Medical University. Her main research topics are psycho-immunology and psycho-oncology and she will coordinate the medical psychological counselling of people living with MSA.
Assoc.-Prof.in Dr.in PH Gaby Sroczynski, MPH
Assoc.-Prof. Sroczynski is the Head of the Program on Decision Analysis at UMIT TIROL. She focuses on health data, decision science and decision-analytic modelling and the application of these methods in clinical guideline development, patient guidance and Health Technology Assessment. She will contribute to the MeDeMSA Research Group with her expertise in modeling, data transformation and validation.
Prof. Gregor K. Wenning, MD, PhD, MSc
Prof. Wenning initiated the EMSA-SG (27 MSA centers) that generated numerous observational and interventional trials and coordinated the recent revision of MSA diagnostic criteria (Wenning et al., 2022). GKW will provide his expertise within the clinical MeDeMSA board meetings with a focus on QoL in MSA patients recruited in PA3 compared to those of the historical EMSA-SG cohort.