Professor Dr. med. Michael Dreher

Professor Dr. med. M. Dreher (Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Michael Dreher) has headed Department V of Pneumology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Aachen of RWTH Aachen University since 2018 and, at the same time, the Medical Pulmonology Centre at St. Franziskus Hospital since 2014.

Since 2016 Professor Dreher has chaired the «Noninvasive Ventilatory Support» working group of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), of which he was executive secretary from 2003 to 2016; since 2015 he has been deputy chairman of the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pneumologie und Beatmungsmedizin e.V. (DGP), and since 2013 a member of the board of DIGAB, the German interdisciplinary society for home oxygen therapy.

Professor Michael Dreher’s areas of particular expertise include the diagnosis and treatment of patients with oncological diseases:

• lung carcinoma;
• malignant pleural mesothelioma;
• lung metastases;
• pleural mesothelioma;
• tumours of the thymus gland / myasthenia;
• sarcoma, including in children;
• tumours of the chest wall;
• mediastinal tumours;
• Pancoast tumours.

 For further diagnostics and treatment, the department works in close interdisciplinary cooperation with other hospital departments, in particular oncology, radiotherapy, thoracic surgery, radiology, nuclear medicine and pathology, which makes it possible to deliver multimodal treatment of severe and advanced diseases.

The department headed by Professor Michael Dreher successfully treats chronic obstructive airway diseases, lung cancer, occupational, infectious,  genetic diseases of the lungs and costal pleura, as well as rare lung diseases. These include COPD, pulmonary emphysema, bronchial asthma, pulmonary hypertension and cystic fibrosis.

The Department of Pneumology is certified by the German Cancer Society (DKG) and the European Cancer Centre (ECC); its experts take an active part in scientific research, cooperate closely with the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and are a partner of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). Department V is accredited by the European Network for Interstitial Lung Diseases (ERN-LUNG)
As a certified lung cancer centre, the department’s main goal is to apply innovative scientific developments in clinical practice. This is why it works with the very latest treatment and diagnostic concepts.

Professor Dreher’s research and clinical interests include:

• current approaches to minimally invasive diagnosis of idiopathic variants;
• interstitial lung diseases;
• the pathogenesis and diagnosis of disseminated changes in the lungs;
• video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery;
• biopsy of the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes;
• «open» lung biopsy and video-assisted thoracoscopy;
• mediastinal lymphadenopathy;
• idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, its pathogenesis and diagnosis;
• radiological structural and functional diagnosis of sarcoidosis of the respiratory organs.

The doctor’s specialisation

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD);
• tumours of the lungs and chest;
• pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH);
• lung transplantation;
• cystic fibrosis;
• sarcoidosis;
• bronchial thermoplasty;
• bronchial carcinoma (bronchogenic cancer);
• interstitial lung diseases, rare lung diseases;
  
• lung infections: pneumonia, lung abscess, pleural empyema, tuberculosis;
  
• bronchoscopic lung volume reduction.

The diagnostic services of the Department of Pneumology comprise invasive and non-invasive methods such as:

• chest X-ray and CT;
• ultrasound of the thoracic region;
• bronchoscopy;
• thoracoscopy;
• pleural puncture (with drainage of pleural effusion);
• provocation tests in the diagnosis of bronchial asthma and allergies;
• spiroergometry (cardiopulmonary exercise testing);
• assessment of the blood supply to the lungs;
• a large sleep laboratory (e.g. diagnosis of sleep apnoea);
• endoscopic evaluation of swallowing;
• measurement of fractional flow reserve using a pressure-sensor guidewire;
• intravascular ultrasound imaging (IVUS);
• transbronchial cryobiopsy in the diagnosis of diffuse lung diseases;
• endoscopic percutaneous dilational tracheostomy;
• diagnostic bronchoalveolar lavage;
• echocardiography;
• duplex ultrasound examinations;
• Holter ECG monitoring;
• right heart catheterisation;
• tuberculosis diagnostics;
• genetic testing (for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, cystic fibrosis, ciliary dysfunction);
• diagnosis of reflux and cough;
• biopsy of the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes;
• «open» lung biopsy and video-assisted thoracoscopy;
• radiological structural and functional diagnosis of sarcoidosis of the respiratory organs.

If a malignant disease is suspected, diagnosis and staging are carried out in patients:

• with lung cancer and other bronchopulmonary malignancies;
• with primary pleural mesothelioma and secondary pleural tumours;
• with extrathoracic tumours metastasising to the lungs;
• preoperative functional assessment;

Range of therapeutic services

• treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH);
• treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at any stage;
• treatment of sarcoidosis;
• treatment of breathing disorders in neuromuscular diseases;
• treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF);
• lung transplantation;
• treatment of interstitial lung diseases;
• treatment of pulmonary complications in immunosuppressed patients;
• the opportunity to take part in advanced clinical trials.

Professor Dreher’s particular research interest is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The specialist fields of the pneumology section headed by Professor Dreher also include mechanical ventilation, weaning after ventilation, home ventilation and specialised oxygen therapy.

The Department of Pneumology and Intensive Care Medicine specialises in the diagnosis and the drug-based, device-assisted and physical treatment of all diseases of the lungs, airways, chest wall and diaphragm.

Professor M. Dreher is the author of numerous studies published in national and international specialist journals and a regular participant in international congresses and symposia.

In July 2018 Professor M. Dreher was elected chairman of Deutsche Atemwegsliga, the German association of respiratory physicians and patients.
His responsibilities in this honorary office include :

• continuing professional development for doctors;
• liaison with patient organisations and the public;
• support for programmes for the prevention and early detection of respiratory diseases;
• improving the quality of diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases.

Professor M. Dreher is the author and co-author of more than 75 scientific studies and articles in German and international specialist journals, and a regular participant in and panel member at international congresses.

For his achievements in clinical pulmonology and research, Professor Dreher has been included since 2015 in the list of the best pulmonologists in Germany compiled by «Focus» magazine.

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