Andreas F. Widmer MD, MS, FSHEA, FIDSA

Prof. Widmer earned his MD degree in Switzerland, where he completed his fellowship in internal medicine in several hospitals. He founded the specialty infectious diseases as the secretary of the Swiss Society for Infectious Diseases back in 1998. He was trained in hospital epidemiology by R. Wenzel, in Iowa, IA, USA, where he completed his master degree in epidemiology at the University of Iowa. He is a core member in the "patient safety" program of the WHO, past President of the Swiss Society for Hospital Epidemiology, editorial advisory board member of the journal "Clinical Infectious Diseases". In addition, he is board member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and member in the guidelines committee. Furthermore, he is a fellow of Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), and treasurer of the European Study Group on Nosocomial Infections (ESGNI). His research interests are control of multiresistant pathogens such as MRSA, surgical site infections, in particular implant-associated infections, and C. difficile infections. His current position is deputy chief of the division of infectious diseases and hospital epidemiology, and head of hospital epidemiology at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. He is President of "Swissnoso", the National surveillance project for surgical site infections.