Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Valentin Schäfer

After a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota, USA), Dr Schäfer completed his doctorate with distinction at the age of 28. Since then, imaging diagnostics in vasculitis has been his main field of expertise. To date he has published 13 original papers, 10 of them as lead or corresponding author. Imaging diagnostics of arthritis and large-vessel vasculitis also became the subject of his habilitation thesis. Since March 2018, Dr Schäfer has headed the Section of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at University Hospital Bonn. The 37-year-old physician currently serves as a lecturer (Referent) for several professional societies – the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine, the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium and the European Vasculitis Society

Not least thanks to the visiting professorship he was awarded as a distinction – the Bilka Visiting Professorship, Mayo Clinic, Rochester – Dr Schäfer has also gained international recognition worldwide both as a researcher and as a clinical rheumatologist.

Rheumatologists increasingly use state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment to assess the joints and large vessels of patients with rheumatic conditions. In the past it was used only to examine small joints and in psoriatic arthritis, but it can now also be applied to large joints and blood vessels. The findings of these ultrasound examinations are converted into scores that measure disease activity. This became possible in large part thanks to the research carried out by Dr. med. Valentin Schäfer. It was for this research that the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRh) awarded the young scientist the Rudolf Schoen Prize at the Rheumatology Congress held virtually in 2020.

In the past, joint damage caused by rheumatic diseases could be assessed only by regular X-ray examinations or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Today, thanks to Dr Schäfer's research, ultrasound examinations have been integrated into everyday practice: more and more rheumatologists use powerful, radiation-free ultrasound devices to gain an impression of the condition of the joints. Besides its lower cost, the advantage of ultrasound over MRI is that the doctor can discuss the findings with the patient immediately after the examination.

In recent years, Dr Schäfer's outstanding work on integrating ultrasound into rheumatological diagnostics has considerably shortened the time to diagnosis, simplified the diagnostic process itself, reduced its cost and made it completely harmless for patients. Fluorescence optical imaging has made it possible to overcome the main drawback of conventional ultrasound examinations – how long they take. With the new method, all finger and wrist joints on both sides can be examined within a few minutes, including in patients with rheumatological vascular diseases such as giant cell arteritis. It has therefore become possible to monitor the condition of the muscles, joints and vessels and to respond quickly without having to send patients for regular MRI or X-ray examinations.

Specialisation

Rheumatology, internal medicine.

Areas of particular expertise of Priv.-Doz. Valentin Schäfer

• herpes zoster;
• giant cell arteritis;
• psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis;
• synovitis;
• rheumatoid arthritis;
• gouty arthritis;
• systemic inflammatory polyarticular gout syndrome;
• systemic lupus erythematosus;
• large-vessel vasculitis;
• antibodies to the cytoplasmic antigen Jo (anti-Jo);
• mastocytosis;
• biologics in the treatment of large-vessel vasculitis;
• ultrasound diagnostics of Sjögren's syndrome;
• arthropathies;
• arthritides;
• spinal epidural lipomatosis.

Position

Head of the Section of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology.

Certificates of professional societies

2020 — Level III certificate, instructor (Referent) of the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM) in musculoskeletal sonography.

2017 — Level I certificate of the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM) in abdominal sonography.

Scholarships

2005 – 2010 – Scholarship of Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic) Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.

7/2008 – 9/2008 – Research grant, Mayo Clinic, Rochester (Minnesota, USA).

2017 – Exchange programme scholarship of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) / American College of Rheumatology (ACR) ACR Kongress 2017, San Diego, USA.

Awards

2020 – Rudolf Schoen Prize of the Foundation of the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRh) for outstanding scientific work in rheumatology (Rudolf-Schoen- Preis 2020 der Stiftung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie).

2018 – Award of the Bilka Visiting Professorship, granted to visiting professors from abroad, Mayo Clinic, Rochester (Minnesota, USA), for taking part in the international conference on "Large-vessel vasculitis".

Doctoral theses

2010 — Defence of the thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine with distinction / summa cum laude at Charles University, Prague, 2010.

2011 — Defence of the thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine with distinction / summa cum laude at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2011.

Habilitation thesis

2019 — Speciality: internal medicine, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn;
             Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
             Topic: «Imaging diagnostics of arthritis and vasculitis».

Further postgraduate training

10/2010 – 09/2011 — Department of Internal Medicine III, Rheumatology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University Hospital of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg.

10/2010 – 09/2014 — Department of Internal Medicine I: internal medicine, gastroenterology, hepatology, endocrinology, rheumatology, immunology and infectious diseases.

10/2014 – 06/2017 — Immanuel Hospital Berlin, Berlin-Buch campus, academic teaching hospital of the Charité University Hospital.

Certification as a «specialist physician»

12/2016 — Berlin Medical Association, medical speciality «internal medicine and rheumatology».

Professional career

07/2017 – 02/2018 — Senior consultant, Department of Internal Medicine I, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Centre, Mainz, and the Acura Rheumatology Clinic, Bad Kreuznach.

Since 03/2018 — Head of the Section of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine III and Outpatient Clinic, University Hospital Bonn.

List of publications by Priv.-Doz. Valentin Schäfer can be found at this link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=sch%C3%A4fer+vs&sort=date&size=50

Review and editorial work of Priv.-Doz. V. Schäfer

Editorial board member

1. Journal of Archives in Military Medicine since 2016
2. JSM Arthritis since 2017
3. The Open Rheumatology Journal since 2017
4. RMD Muskuloskeletal Disorders since 2020

Reviewer for scientific journals

1. Aktuelle Rheumatologie since 2012
2. The Journal of Rheumatology since 2014
3. BMC Dermatology since 2015
4. Modern Rheumatology since 2015
5. Rheumatology (Oxford) since 2015
6. Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie since 2016
7. PLOS ONE since 2016
8. Journal of Spine & Neurosurgery since 2016
9. The Open Rheumatology Journal since 2017
10. Arthritis Research & Therapy since 2017
11. Current Rheumatology Reviews since 2017
12. Clinical Rheumatology since 2017
13. Nature Scientific Reports since 2018
14. Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) since 2018
15. SAGE Open Medical Case Reports since 2018
16. RMD open since 2018
17. European Journal of Ultrasound since 2018
18. SAGE open Medical Case Reports since 2018
19. Arthritis and Rheumatology since 2019
20. Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology since 2020
21. Journal of Clinical Medicine since 2020

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