Professor Norbert Runkel, MD

Professor Norbert Runkel is chairman of the Department of Obesity and Metabolic Surgery and the Centre of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery at the Sana Hospital Offenbach, teaching hospital of the University of Frankfurt, Germany.
He qualified in Medicine from the University of Mainz, Germany, and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School London, UK, and underwent his surgical training in Heidelberg, Germany. He was a research fellow in gastrointestinal physiology with the University of Texas at Houston, USA, from 1988-1990 and completed his PhD at Heidelberg in 1993.
Dr. Runkel became vice chairman of the Department of General Surgery at the University of Berlin, Germany, in 1994 with interest in upper and lower GI-surgery. In the year 2000 he moved to the Black Forest region to become Chairman of the Department of General and Visceral Surgery in VS; a teaching hospital of the University of Freiburg. Here he developed his laparoscopic skills to master benign and oncologic surgery of the gastrointestinal tract. In 2004, he started a bariatric program and founded a certified centre in 2008. He was founding member of the German bariatric society (CAADIP) and member of its executive board for 6 years. He was the principle author of the first national guidelines.
Dr. Runkel moved to Frankfurt, Germany, to specialize in bariatric surgery and to take the prestigious chair from Professor Rudolf Weiner this summer. His clinical and scientific focus is on metabolic and revisional bariatric surgery.