Bernd Blobel

Bernd Blobel (born October 1, 1947, in the city of Magdeburg, Germany) is a scientist recognized for his contributions to the field of health informatics. He is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Regensburg, Germany, and visiting professor at the First Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic, as well as at the Dept. of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering of the University of Genoa, Italy. His main areas of research include electronic medical records, security, privacy and interoperability, information systems architectures in health, telemedicine and biomedicine, engineering, translational medicine, knowledge representation, and ontologies. He has received numerous recognitions for his scientific career, among which are: Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) (2004), Fellow of HL7 International (2010), Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) (2011), Honorary Fellow of the European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI) (2015), Inaugural Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences and Informatics (IAHSI) (2017), and Honorary Fellow of the EuroMISE Mentors Association, as well as Honorary Fellow of HL7 Germany and the Society for Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics of the Czech Republic. He is the author of more than 600 high-impact scientific articles, including the book Analysis, Design and Implementation of Secure and Interoperable Distributed Health Information Systems.. Over all, he authored/edited more than 50 books and has been advisor of EHR and eHealth/pHealth programs of more than 50 countries around the world.

Bernd Blobel
Born	(1947-10-01)1 October 1947 Magdeburg, Germany
Citizenship	German
Scientific career
Fields	Health Informatics, natural sciences, electrical engineering cybernetics
Institutions	Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, University of Regensburg, Charles University Prague, First Medical Faculty.

Biography

From the beginning, he was always comprehensively interested, aiming to truly understand everything. Consequently, during his schooldays, he was the only scholar in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), receiving the school grade “excellent” in all school subjects. He became inaugural member of the newly launched Club of Young Mathematicians. Thereafter, he was selected as one of the 19 members of the First Special Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences in the former German Democratic Republic, an elite school aiming to train the most talented scholars in the nation. He started already as scholar his practical engagement in computer science with the first tube-based computer build in the GDR, enabled as his father was the operating engineer for this first computer at the Magdeburg Institute of Technology (now Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg). He began his university studies at this institution in 1964. He received university degrees and certificates in electronics (1971), computer science (1971), biocybernetics (1974), theoretical physics (1975), biometry and medical informatics (1985), and, theory of education (1989). He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Magdeburg with a thesis entitled "About the mechanism of information processing and energy transformation in bio-receptors – a general and membrane structure related transducer model " (1976) . Subsequently, he performed a Habilitation (post-doctorate qualification as a university professor in Germany) in Environment and Medicine at Magdeburg Medical University with a postdoctoral thesis " Implications of physical environmental factors on health" (1981), as well as a Qualification in Medical Informatics at the University of Magdeburg with the postdoctoral thesis " Analysis and Design of Secure and Interoperable Distributed Health Information Systems" (2001).

He developed a large part of his research career within the borders of the former German Democratic Republic, at the Magdeburg University of Medicine (later at the University of Magdeburg, Faculty of Medicine). Blobel was Head of the Laboratory of Environmental Medicine (1974–81), Director of Information Technology (CIO) (1974-2004), Founder and Head of the Medical Informatics Group (1981–87), Founding Director of the Medical Informatics Department, Deputy Director / Acting Director for the Institute of Biometry and Medical Informatics at the Magdeburg University of Medicine (1987-2004). In 2004 he moved as Founder and Head of Health Telematics Group from the Fraunhofer Institute Integrated Circuits in Erlangen (2004–06). From 2006 until his retirement in 2012 he served as founder and director of the National eHealth Competence Center (eHCC) and the globally first International Interdisciplinary PhD and PostDoc College at the Regensburg University Hospital (the University of Regensburg, Faculty of Medicine).

International career

• Co-Founder and Vice President of HL7 Germany (1993-2012).
• Co-Chair of the OMG Object Management Group Security Working Group (1996-2001)
• Co-chair of the Working Groups "Security" and "Personnel Management" as well as the International Council at HL7 International (1997-2014)
• Co-chair, Healthcare Chapter, IFIP / Unesco World IT Forum (WITFOR) (2001–04)
• Chair, CEN/ISSS eHealth Standardization Focus Group, Brussels, Belgium (2004–06)
• Vice-Chair/Chair, Working Group “Security, Safety and Ethics” (1997-2014), Chair, Working Group “EHR” (2000–14), and Member of the Council of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI).
• Vice President of the Working Group "Security in Health Information Systems" (1998-2004)
• Member of the General Assembly of IMIA (2004–06) at the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)

Awards and Honors

• Recipient of the German Federal Order of Merit

• Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) (2004)
• Fellow of HL7 International (2010)
• Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) (2011)
• Honorary Fellow of the European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI) (2015)
• Inaugural Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences and Informatics (IAHSI) (2017).
• Honorary Fellow of the EuroMISE Mentors Association
• Honorary Fellow of HL7 Germany and the Society for Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics of the Czech Republic.
• Honored by ScholarGPS™ as 2022 Highly Ranked Scholar – Lifetime in the Specialties Informatics and Health Informatics with the following ranks: #1 in Semantic Interoperability, #19 in Informatics, #34 in Health Informatics, #57 in Systems Architecture, #115 in eHealth, #395 in Data Security, #792 in Ontology, #985 in mHealth.