Alumni Association German Speaking Chapter 2019 Vienna, Austria, meeting highlights

The June 2019 meeting of the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association German Speaking Chapter was hosted by Burkhard Wippermann, M.D. (BIOM ’87), in Vienna, Austria.

Chapter members gathered at the Grand Hotel Ferdinand for wiener schnitzel and conversation. For the first time in many years the group was honored by the attendance of Olga Juchems, whose late husband, Rudolf Juchems, M.D. (I ’61), was a founder of the German Speaking Chapter. Those events were sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association, represented by Alumni Center Director Judith Anderson.

Michael Schirmer, M.D. (RHEU ’97), of Innsbruck, Austria, and John Wilkinson, M.D. (MED ’78, I ’81), of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, arranged the scientific meeting at St. Johanns Club, a long-established Viennese men’s social club. Talks covered preventive medicine, the Mayo Clinic partnership in London with Oxford University, phage treatment for deep infections and pharmacologic therapy for migraines. Speakers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester include Dr. Wilkinson, Stephen Cassivi, M.D. (TS ’02), Darryl Chutka, M.D. (MED ’78, I ’82), Robert Jacobson, M.D. (PD ’89), and Tobias Peikert, M.D. (THDCC ‘07).

Participants also visited Billroth Haus, which houses the Viennese Doctors Society (Gesellschaft der Ärzte) and features one of the largest medical libraries in the world. William J. Mayo, M.D., and Charles H. Mayo, M.D., visited Vienna in 1936 and were elected as honorary members of the Gesellschaft der Ärzte in Vienna.

The group’s next meeting is June 12-14, 2020, in Bonn, Germany, and hosted by Michael Muders, M.D. (BIOC ’07, U `09).