Rainer Dziewas MD

Dr. Rainer Dziewas is a Professor of Neurology at the university hospital Munster, Germany, where he is the head of the stroke unit and neurological intensive care unit. Professor Dziewas is a Fellow of the European Stroke Organization, a board member of the European Society for Swallowing Disorders (ESSD), and vice-chairman of the German Dysphagia Society.

His research focuses on both the central organization of swallowing and modern approaches to the evaluation and management of dysphagia. Capitalizing on the excellent time resolution of magnetoencephalography his group studied the cortical control of deglutition in health and different neurological diseases. In the clinical context, he made use of fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to systematically study stroke-related dysphagia and to deduce appropriate treatment strategies.

His group uses new neurostimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation and pharyngeal electrical stimulation in basic science and clinical trials. Prof. Dziewas significantly contributed to the development of the German FEES curriculum and the ESSD-FEES accreditation program. Prof. Dziewas is head of the guideline committee „Neurogenic Dysphagia“ of the German Society of Neurology and head of the guideline committee „Diagnosis and treatment of post-stroke dysphagia“ of the European Stroke Organization. Prof. Dziewas has published more than 120 peer-reviewed original articles, 2 books, and 9 book chapters.