VSCR is an non-profit educational institute and registered in Austria as "gemeinnützige GmbH".

AndreasFesta
Andreas Festa
Vienna / AT
Chairman of the Educational Advisory Board

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Festa

AndreasFesta

Vienna / AT

Diabetology, Management Board,

Univ. Prof. Dr. Andreas Festa

Dr Festa has been active in research/development and clinical care for patients with diabetes now more than 25 years, focusing on the management of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as the interplay between cardiovascular risk factors, CV risk and the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. He has received numerous research awards from national and international associations, has been an active reviewer for top peer-reviewed journals (to date more than 150 reviews for Diabetes Care), and a member of the Diabetes Care Editorial Board (2007-2009). Dr Festa has published more than 55 articles in top-listed journals, including The Lancet, Circulation, Diabetes Care, JCEM, Am J Cardiol, ATVB, Diabetologia, and Diabetes.

Dr Festa received his medical degree from the University of Vienna, where he was also appointed Professor of Medicine in 2012. His academic career included a research fellowship at the Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology in San Antonio, Tx, USA, before he joined the pharmaceutical industry, where he held various positions in innovative companies covering clinical research and development as well as senior global management.

Currently, Dr Festa is head of an outpatient clinic for patients with diabetes and metabolic diseases at LK Stockerau Hospital, Nö, Austria. In addition, he holds various teaching appointments, is actively involved in post-graduate medical education and works as an independent consultant in the field of health care for people with diabetes and associated conditions.

Heinrich Klech
Heinrich Klech
Vienna / AT
Managing Director of VSCR

Prof. Heinrich Klech

Heinrich Klech

Vienna / AT

Management Board

Prof. Heinrich Klech is an internal medicine specialist by training from the University of Vienna. He is author of more than 200 publications in the field of lung diseases and served on the editorial board of many renowned medical journals in the field of Pulmonology and Internal medicine After a successful academic international career he changed to executive R&D management positions in the the pharmaceutical industry.He held position for Central Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa for Eli Lilly & Company, and led later Lillys R&D and regulatory activities in a large part of Western Europe. He retired in 2008 from Lilly.

For decades he held responsiblities for postgraduate education on behalf of the Austrian Medical Association and served on the board of the Austrian Akademie der Ärzte.

In 2000 he founded the Vienna School for Clinical Research (VSCR), a not-for-profit postgraduate educational institution, which trained and developed clinical researchers on a global basis in close partnership with 14 international universities. The VSCR in collaboration with the Medical University Vienna (MUW) in the past 16 years has trained more than 7000 scientists from more than 90 countries. Today, the VSCR (Vienna School of Clinical Research, Public Health and Medical Education) is an international Center of Excellence for Clinical Research, Health Economy and accredited postgraduate medical education.

He is a board member of various national and international pharmaceutical associations as well as postgraduate educational institutions. e.g. he is member of the executive board of the PharmaTrain Federation and of EFGCP (European Forum for Good Clinical Practice). For the last 5 years he is also in a leading position within the European IMI programe (Innovative Medicine Initiative), a joint project of the European Commission and EFPIA.

Margarete Schreiner-Karner
Vienna / AT
Operational Manager of VSCR

Mag. Margarete Schreiner-Karner

Vienna / AT

Management Board

Mrs. Margarete Schreiner-Karner graduated from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration specializing in marketing and social policy.

She began her career as a biomedical analyst in a medical-diagnostic laboratory for clinical chemistry and hematology, before joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2002. As product and brand manager, she was responsible for product launches, especially in the indications of obesity, diabetes (sanofi) and oncology (Takeda), in close cooperation with market access and medicine.

Mrs. Schreiner-Karner was able to gather additional expertise in the context of conducting Phase III clinical trials in the field of diabetes at MedUni Vienna, University Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

In 2018 Mrs. Schreiner-Karner joined the VSCR team as operational manager and member of the VSCR management board.