The aim is to prevent or delay age-related diseases

Würzburg. With the signing of a foundation agreement, the Würzburg University Medicine, the Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp and the Bürgerspital zum Hl. Geist Foundation set the course for the establishment of a new professorship for the prevention of dementia and dementia-related diseases.

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With their signatures under a foundation agreement, six executives from the Würzburg Julius Maximilians University (JMU), the University Hospital Würzburg (UKW), the Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp and the Futura trust foundation of the Bürgerspital zum Hl. Geist foundation laid the basis for the establishment of a new W1 professorship, which will in future look for ways of preventing dementia and dementia-related diseases. Half of the funding for the position, which is initially intended to last six years, will be borne by the UKW, with the two foundations each covering a quarter of the costs.

The initiator of the project was the Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp. Their CEO Dr. Gunther Schunk explains: “After a cohort study on the early diagnosis of dementia diseases, which we financed from 2010, ended in 2022, the question arose as to how to proceed with the many findings made in the process.” At the Center for Mental Health (ZEP) conducted by UKW, 600 Würzburg residents who were 75 years old at the start of the study took part. These were followed up at two points in time over the following twelve years.

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“This wealth of knowledge and other research results that have been achieved in the meantime form the basis for the new professorship’s focus on whether and how dementia can be prevented or at least delayed,” says Professor Dr. Jurgen Deckert. According to the spokesman for the ZEP, dementia-related illnesses such as falls, depression or disorders of the sleep rhythm should also be taken into account.

“With the establishment of the professorship, it will now be possible to combine the latest findings from brain research with methods of artificial intelligence,” says Dean Professor Dr. Matthias Frosch, who signed the foundation agreement on behalf of the medical faculty of the JMU. And the university president, Professor Dr. Paul Pauli adds: “The professor will have excellent structures and cooperation partners at the University of Würzburg for the successful processing of these research topics.”

Since demographic change means that there are more and more older people who are also getting older, it must be assumed that the number of around 1.6 million people with dementia in Germany will continue to rise in the future. “Against this background alone, it makes sense for the Bürgerspital Foundation, which has been offering old people with all their illnesses the best possible care while maintaining autonomy and dignity, to participate in the endowed professorship,” says Annette Noffz.

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and dr Schunk comments: “The endowed professorship is a tailor-made solution for advancing this socially important topic at the interface between research, teaching and application.”

The Medical Director, Prof. Dr. Jens Maschmann and the Commercial Director, Philip Rieger, on the signatories. “For the founder of the foundation, Dr. Eckernkamp was always instigating endowments,” reports Rieger and continues: “In this case, too, we were ‘instigated’, because without the co-financing of the two foundations the professorship would not have come about.”

Professor Maschmann outlines the next steps: “We are planning to advertise the professorship at our clinic and polyclinic for psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy in April of this year.

Ideally, a cast can be expected at the turn of the year 2022/23.”

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