Helmut Baumgartner MD

Dr. Helmut Baumgartner is Professor of Cardiology/Adult Congenital Heart Disease at the University of Muenster and Director of the Department of Cardiology III: Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease at the University Hospital Muenster in Muenster Germany.

He trained in Austria, spent one year in the U.S., and was Associate Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at the University of Vienna for 14 years before his appointment at the University of Muenster in 2007. Already in Austria, he developed Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Valvular Heart Disease Programs at the Medical University of Vienna. He was one of the founding members of the Working Group on Adult Congenital Heart Disease of the Austrian Society of Cardiology.

He has served for many years as a member of the Working Group on Grown-up Congenital Heart Disease (GUCH) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) including chairmanship and lead the task force for the ESC Guidelines on the management of grown-up congenital heart disease and was one of the chairs of the task force for the 2017 ESC Guidelines on valvular heart disease.

His research activities focus on noninvasive assessment, natural history, outcome after repair, and predictors of outcome for optimizing the time and type of intervention as well as development and evaluation of catheter interventional treatment options of adult congenital and valvular heart disease. This research had an impact on the current practice guidelines for the management of valvular and adult congenital heart disease, such as the assessment of aortic stenosis and prosthetic heart valves, and the management of aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation, atrial septal defect, and ventricular septal defect.