Disclosures of sponsorship and financial/personal relationships with commercial or non-profit organisations

In an attempt to be as transparent as possible (and also in an attempt to comply with the ethical quality criteria I am advocating for web-publishers - see FAQ) I am hereby disclosing my relationships with any organisation or company  which have in the past three years supported my work financially. 

Primary sources of salary

• University Health Network, Toronto, Canada
• University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany

Consulting

• Jan 1999 - Oct 2001 Senior Medical Advisor to Netdoktor.com
• Jun 2001 - present Consultant and member of the scientific board for InterComponentWare AG (unpaid, but received travel costs and honorarium for a talk)

Publishing

• I receive some very minimal royalties from Thieme for my book Medicine and Medical Education in Europe (less than 100 Euro p.a.)
• in the past I received royalties for book projects from Urban & Schwarzenberg and Springer Verlag
• I also received some royalties from the British Medical Journal and occasionally recieved book-vouchers from BMJ Publishing for peer-reviewing work
• my work as a publisher and editor of the Journal of Medical Internet Research is voluntary and unpaid - I am not making any money with this

Support for travel and talks 
[not included are invitations from universities]

• Bayer Vital GmbH
• BEES (British Epidermo-Epidemiological Society), Nottingham  
• Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgen e.V.
• BPI Service GmbH, Frankfurt
• Bundesvereinigung für Gesundheit e.V. / AFGIS
• DIE ZEIT, Hamburg
• European Health Forum Gastein
• European Commission, Brussels
• Gödecke, Freiburg
• Hermandad Farmacéutica del Mediterráneo, Murcia, Spain
• INSEAD Business School, Fontainebleau, France
• InterComponentWare AG 
• Internet Society
• Katharinen-Hospital, Unna
• Klinikum Minden
• Krebsgesellschaft, Frankfurt  
• RTL
• Schering, Berlin
• Stiftung Warentest, Berlin
• Smith-Kline Beecham, München
• TV Vital, München
• ULMEDIA GmbH, Ulm
• UNESCO/ICGHP, Paris
• WHO/BIREME
• ZDF, Mainz

I thank all sponsors and supporters enabling my work and helping to publicise or disseminate our research results.

Organisations interested in supporting academic work in the field of eHealth, consumer health informatics and patient education are welcome to contact me to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, ranging from support for specific projects or expert reports to creating an endowed chair at the University of Toronto, e.g. a Chair in Patient Education (or a Chair in Consumer Health Informatics, a Chair in eHealth, or a Chair in Medical Informatics). An Endowed Chair enables the university to create a new faculty position to be filled by a scholar of national or international acclaim. The income from the endowment provides much-needed salary supplements, research assistance, and staff support. An endowed chair brings prestige and honor to the institution and to the person or persons for whom the chair is named (Gift: $1-1.5 million or more).