Monday, 10-May-2004 23:09:35 PDT

Gunther Eysenbach, M.D., M.P.H.

 

Professional experience

2002 - today	Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto; Senior Scientist, Division of Medical Decision Making and Health Care Research;  Core Faculty member, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation,  Toronto General Research Institute of the UHN,  Toronto General Hospital, Canada
1999 - 2001	Senior Researcher, Lecturer, Head of the Research Unit for Cybermedicine & eHealth, Department of Clinical Social Medicine (AKS), University of Heidelberg, Germany
1997 - 1998	Resident & Researcher, Unit for Medical Informatics and Epidemiology at  the Dept. of Dermatology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, project management of  Dermatology Online Image Atlas (DOIA) and DERMIS
1997 - 1998	Internship at the Department of Dermatology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Graduate Medical Education

2001-2003	M.P.H. [Master of Public Health], Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)
1999	M.D. [Dr.med.] Dissertation "Production and molecular characterisation of a monoclonal, natural autoantibody" (magna cum laude)
1995-1996	Practical Year (PJ) in London (surgery) and Freiburg (diagnostic radiology, internal medicine)
1990-1996	Clinical studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg
1990-1991	Studies interrupted to do a research elective at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology, Freiburg (Eibel/Köhler)
1988-1990	Preclinical studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich In addition: Courses in computer science at the Fernhochschule Hagen.

Primary and secondary education

• Primary school: Grundschule Erlangen-Bruck, Erlangen
• Upper secondary school: Humanistisches Gymnasium Fridericianum, Erlangen, A-levels school-leaver: "Abitur" (qualifying for university entrance)

 

Publicistic work and appointments

1999-today	Peer-reviewer for the BMJ and other medical journals, member of several editorial boards [details]
1998	Founding editor & Editor-in-Chief Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR)
1993-95	Editor-in-chief of JEMSA (Journal of EMSA on Medical and Scientific Affairs)
1994	Author of the book Computer-Manual für Mediziner und Biowissenschaftler (published by Urban & Schwarzenberg 1994)
1994-today	Editor of the loose-leaf book Praxis und Computer (published by Springer-Verlag)
1995-1998	Editor of the book Medicine and Medical Education in Europe, Thieme (ISBN 3-13-115221-4)
1995-1996	Member of the Hanging Committee of the Student BMJ

As of 2004, author and editor of more than 120 publications, including several research papers in leading scientifc journals (BMJ, JAMA, Lancet).

 

Publication list as PDF (CIHR Contributions/Publications module)

 

Selected Publications in leading biomedical journals

1. Eysenbach G, Powell J, Englesakis M, Rizo C, Stern A. Health-related virtual communities and electronic support groups: systematic review of the effects of online peer-to-peer interactions.
   BMJ (2004, in press)

2. Eysenbach G. The impact of the Internet on cancer outcomes.
           CA Cancer J Clin 2003; 53(6): 356-371

3. Eysenbach G, Powell J, Kuss O, Sa ER. Empirical studies assessing the quality of health information for consumers on the World Wide Web: A systematic review. 
   JAMA 2002; 287: 2691-2700

4. Eysenbach G, Köhler C. How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the World-Wide-Web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests and in-depth interviews
   BMJ 2002; 324: 573-577

5. Eysenbach G, Till JE. Ethical issues in qualitative research on Internet communities. 
   BMJ 2001; 323: 1103-1105

6. Eysenbach G. Consumer Health Informatics 
   BMJ  2000;320:1713-1716 (24 June)

7. Eysenbach G, Sa ER, Diepgen TL. Shopping the Internet today and tomorrow - Towards the Millennium of Cybermedicine. 
   BMJ 1999;319:1294 [full] (13 November)
   [Global Theme Issue on the Impact of New Technology in Medicine]

8. Eysenbach G. The impact of preprint servers and electronic publishing on biomedical research [Guest Editorial]. 
   Current Opinion in Immunology Oct 2000; 12(5): 499-503

9. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL: Responses to unsolicited patient e-mail requests for medical advice on the World Wide Web. 
   JAMA. 1998;280:1333-1335.

10. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL. Evaluation of Cyberdocs. 
    Lancet 1998; 352 (9139): 1526

11. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL: Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information. 
    BMJ 1998;317:1496-1500

12. Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL:  Patients Looking for Information on the Internet and Seeking Teleadvice: Motivation, Expectations, and Misconceptions as Expressed in E-mails Sent to Physicians
    Archives of Dermatology 1999;135:151-156

 Books

• Lewis D, Eysenbach G, Kukafka R, Jimison H, Stavri Z (eds.): Consumer Health Informatics. Springer New York [in preparation]

• Eysenbach G, Lamers W (eds.): Praxis und Computer. [Loseblattwerk mit 4-monatigen Folgelieferungen]
  Düsseldorf: Springer-Verlag/med-inform Verlagsges. 1999  2 Bde., ca. 1800 Seiten, DM 248,-

• Eysenbach, G. (ed.): Medicine and Medical Education in Europe - The Eurodoctor, Stuttgart-New York: Thieme 1998, ISBN 3-13-115221-4

• Eysenbach, G.: Computer-Manual für Mediziner und Biowissenschaftler. München-Wien-Baltimore: Urban & Schwarzenberg 1994, ISBN 3-541-11841-5

Research Focus

• Crossroads of Medical Informatics and Public Health, in particular "Cybermedicine" (Internet and Medicine) and Consumer Health Informatics, including
  • Computer interventions for health promotion, patient education, health and informed decision making
  • Health Assessment Systems
  • Computers for Health Education, Tailoring health information
  • Design, implementation and evaluation of medical websites / portal sites (public health and business aspects of e-health)
    • creating content & community
    • implementing responsible e-commerce
    • connecting physicians and patients
  • Participatory decision making systems
  • Consumer involvement in designing consumer oriented health information systems
  • Health Communication / Social Marketing
  • Health information libraries
  • Ethical aspects of consumer health informatics
  • Teleprevention
  • Teleepidemiology
• Evidenced based medicine, Systematic Reviews, Information Retrieval
• Electronic Publishing
• Scientific Misconduct and Research Ethics

                Awards and Honors (other than research awards)

2000                                        Yearbook of Medical Informatics

The yearbook of the International Medical Informatics Association publishes “the most excellent, original and state-of-the-art research in the area of Health and Medical Informatics of the past year”.

In the 2000 Yearbook our paper “Eysenbach G, Diepgen TL. Patients looking for information on the Internet and seeking teleadvice: motivation, expectations, and misconceptions as expressed in e-mails sent to physicians. Arch Dermatol 1999;135:151-6” was selected for re-publication in the book.

                2002                                        The Ferguson Report's Distinguished Achievement Award

“Gunther Eysenbach is one of the most productive researchers, editors, and publishers in the online health field.”

[The Ferguson Report, Number 9, September 2002 http://www.fergusonreport.com/articles/fr00907.htm]

2002                                        Diana Forsythe Award Nominee.

The award, awarded by American Medical Informatics Association’s (AMIA's) People & Organizational Issues Working Group, is for the best paper (journal or AMIA Symposium) published over the last year (Spring 2001-Spring 2002) that exemplifies work in the spirit of Diana Forsythe.  Nominees are best papers reporting research at the intersection of medical informatics and social science.

In 2002, our paper “Eysenbach G, Köhler C. How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the World-Wide-Web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests and in-depth interviews  BMJ 2002; 324: 573-577” was one of 9 nominated papers for the award, selected from the world medical literature.

                2004                                        Janssen-Cilag Future Award (for MedCIRCLE)

Bio sketch

Gunther Eysenbach, MD MPH, studied medicine in Munich and Freiburg in German, and obtained a Master in Public Health from Harvard University. Gunther is recognized by many as one of the leading researchers in the field of eHealth and Internet & Medicine, and is currently Senior Scientist at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at the Toronto Research Institute/Toronto General Hospital and Division of Medical Decision Making and Health Care Research. He also holds an academic appointment as Associate Professor at the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.

He founded and headed the first research group on cybermedicine and eHealth worldwide at the University of Heidelberg between 1999 and 2001, where his main research interest was consumer health informatics, and came to Canada in March 2002 to join Alex Jadad to help building up the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation in Toronto. 

He is author of a textbook for computers in medicine (which he wrote at the age of 24), editor of a loose-leaf book on computers for physicians, founding editor and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, a leading global eHealth journal. Dr. Eysenbach has authored more than 120 publications, including almost 40 book-chapters as well as several pioneer studies and comments on cybermedicine, e-health and Consumer health informatics, published in respected international journals such as JAMA, BMJ, and the Lancet.

Carrying a German passport, he now lives in Canada and is married to a beautiful Korean woman. He considers himself very much a world citizen and loves traveling, discovering new cultures, and living in one of the world's most multi-cultural cities - Toronto.