Research
Research programme of Augsburg University Medicine
The research programme of Augsburg University Medicine is built around two interconnected research areas: “environmental health sciences” and “medical information sciences”. In its report, the Council of Science and Humanities describes the combination of these two fields of research as giving Augsburg, as a location, a unique selling point and the potential to play a significant role nationally. It will be the first time in Germany that these areas are key research topics for a university medical faculty. Furthermore, they fit well with and complement the work being done in other medical centres in Bavaria. In addition to these two research priorities, the faculty will also be involved in more traditional clinical areas, such as vascular medicine, tumour medicine and translational research.
The research programme makes full use of existing structures, institutions and cooperative arrangements, and thus, in the view of the Council, is likely to be successfully implemented. Both research areas make the most of existing strengths of the University of Augsburg: interdisciplinary health research, environmental research and informatics.
Main research areas
The Medical Faculty has two main research areas: Medical Information Sciences and Environmental Health Sciences.
Clinical Profile Centres
In three clinical profile centres, Augsburg University Medicine focuses its clinical research on allergology, tumour medicine and vascular medicine.
Research Institutions
Institute of Environmental Medicine and Integrative Health
At the Institute of Environmental Medicine and Integrative Health (TUNE), a transdisciplinary team is dedicated to basic and translational research on "environment–human" interactions, with a particular focus on allergic diseases. The research is currently organized into five specialist areas: Functional Microbiomics, Human Exposure Science, Immune Biomarker Group, Environmental Immunology, and Environmental Medical Bioinformatics.
Institute for Ethics and History of Health in Society
The interdisciplinary team works on ethical and historical perspectives of medicine in its clinical, scientific, social and political contexts. In research and teaching, we deal with current issues of health, prevention and disease and contribute to the ethically and historically informed discussion of norms and values in medicine, science, politics and the public.
Institute of Epidemiology
The Institute conducts clinical and population-based studies focusing primarily on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Central to the research are biomarkers, risk factors, and disease progressions, with findings rapidly translated into medical practice. Particular attention is given to the impact of lifestyle, nutrition, psychological factors, and comorbidities.
Institute of General Medicine
The Institute of General Practice (IAM) sees itself as a bridge between university medicine and primary medical care. We promote an evidence-based discourse on concepts of future-oriented healthcare. Our activities are practice-oriented, participatory and interprofessional. We network researchers, citizens, healthcare teams, political decision-makers and interest groups in the healthcare sector.
Department of Medical Education Augsburg DEMEDA
The competence-oriented Augsburg model course of study focuses on the integration of theory and practice in medical training. The model course of study is continuously developed further through the acquisition of empirical evidence. At the same time, its own research results contribute to improving the overall quality of medical training and optimizing it on a scientific basis.
Institute of Theoretical Medicine
The Institute of Theoretical Medicine is a focal point for systematic basic research in biomedicine at the University of Augsburg. Through close cooperation between the disciplines, small and large functional systems are researched equally with the aim of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the human organism and its diseases.
