Robert Schier

Prof. Schier is currently the Co-Chair and Executive Consultant of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne (Germany). He received his Medical Degree (MD) from the University of Bochum (Germany) and was subsequently invited for a postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he concluded his PhD programme in 2007. The year after, he started his residency at the University Hospital of Cologne and became a Specialist for Anesthesiology in 2014. Prof. Schier also specialized in Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and received the European Diploma of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care in 2017. He was then called to become the Head Anesthesiologist in charge of the core surgical units at the University Hospital of Cologne (abdominal, thoracic, trauma surgery and urology). In 2019, he joined the group of Leading Anesthesiologists running the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine under the Chairman Prof. Bernd W. Böttiger. During his time at the University Hospital of Cologne, he developed his independent research field studying the effects of prehabilitation (preoperative exercise to improve postoperative outcome) and perfomed several research projects as a principle investigator in collaboration with Prof. Wilhelm Bloch, Chair of the Institute of Cardiology and Sports Medicine at the German Sports University. In 2015, he was invited to Australia for another research fellowship and conducted further research with Prof. Bernhard Riedel, Chairman of the Department of Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. They explored the role of physiologic capacity (measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing) as a risk predictor for patients scheduled for major thoracic surgery and investigated on the perioperative kinetics of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC), a key cell line for endothelial repair, that can be stimulated through physical exercise. Further, Prof. Schier performed research investigating on the effects of preoperative exercise training on oncological outcome and tumor defense by stimulating natural killer cells (NK). Also, the impact of preoperative exercise on the inflammatory profile and the incidence of sepsis is one of his major research interests. Prof. Schier presented his research on major national and international conferences such as the German Society, the European Society and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (DGAI, ESA, ASA) scientific meetings. He won several awards including the “Clinical Research Award 2011” of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, and the “Best Abstract Award – Clinical Science” at the American Society of Anesthesiology Meeting 2011 in Chicago, USA. He published 38 articles in major Anesthesia and Cardiology journals, received 498 citations, cumulating to an impact factor of 150 and a h-index of 16 (web of science).