Philipp Bonhoeffer

Philipp Bonhoeffer was born and grew up in Germany. He went to study Medicine and Surgery in Italy, at the “Università degli Studi” in Milan, from which he graduated in 1989.

Philipp Bonhoeffer started his career in paediatric cardiology at the “San Donato” polyclinic in Milan and the “Ospedali Riuniti” in Bergamo. In 1994, he moved to Paris and was appointed director of the Hemodynamics Laboratory at the children’s hospital “Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades”.

Then, from 2001 to 2009, he headed up the Haemodynamics Laboratory at “Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children”, and in 2004 he was given a chair as Professor of Cardiology at “University College London”.

Philipp Bonhoeffer particularly devotes his interest to the development of innovative procedures in the area of interventional cardiology. During Professor Bonhoeffer’s research and development of innovative technologies, he met and allied with Allen Tower, the president of the company NuMed, and introduced him to the “multi-track” system - an efficient and affordable method for the treatment of mitral stenosis, and for angiographies.

Philipp Bonhoeffer is a pioneer in trans-catheter pulmonary valve replacement technology. This method allows one to completely avoid or to delay cardio surgical interventions on patients with special forms of congenital cardiac faults. The valve that Philipp Bonhoeffer invented and implanted on a human patient for the very first time in the year 2000 was approved in 2006 by the European Community, and in 2010 by the North American “Food and Drug Administration” (FDA). A company called Medtronic carries out the worldwide distribution of the valve under the brand name “Melody”.

Through his participation in the introduction of a large number of new procedures into clinical practice, Philipp Bonhoeffer has developed a marked interest in questions of ethics in medicine. He is notably interested in patient information/consent methods related to the use of new techniques that do not have a set precedent. A further priority for Philipp Bonhoeffer is to develop new technologies at reasonable cost and to make them available in developing countries.