Prof. Dr. med. Peter Layer

Professor Peter Layer, a German specialist in digestive tract and metabolic diseases, has gained wide national and international recognition as a top expert in functional disorders of the digestive system (stomach, intestines and pancreas), including research of their impact on motility during food transporting and digestion. He is the author and developer of the German-wide guidelines on irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation and other gastrointestinal physiological disorders.

Professor Layer had made his successful career path in Germany, the United States, and Great Britain before he became medical director of the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg (founded by the uncle of the German writer Heinrich Heine). During the 16 years of his office, the facility grew into a unique research and care center for digestive tract diseases. In that period, the hospital annually authored up to half a dozen scientific papers on the treatment of functional disorders of the stomach, intestines, and pancreas.

Professor Layer is also known in the medical research community as a scientist who has made a breakthrough in necrotizing pancreatitis treatment. Previously it was mostly treated by surgery despite the fact that this led to a 50 percent mortality rate. In his 360 scientific publications in German and European gastroenterology journals, Peter Layer repeatedly substantiated the advantages of conservative management. These works are the most cited in the gastroenterology literature worldwide. The methods of pancreatitis therapy developed by Professor Layer have become fundamental for German medicine.

In addition to his numerous scientific publications, Professor Layer has authored and co-authored 35 seminal books on gastroenterology, which has made him a leading active scientist and practitioner in this field of medicine. He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes from the gastroenterology community, and is a longstanding member of specialized research groups on the European and North American continents.

Professor Layer currently heads the Ikaneum Institute for Gastrointestinal Disorders at the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg.

Education

• 1971 – 1976 Human medicine Universities of Tübingen and Edinburgh (Scotland)
• 1977 ECFMG Certificate examination

Professional Experience

• 1979 Approbation
• 1979-1983 Research assistant Internal Medicine Department, Essen University Hospital
• 1980 PhD thesis defense (summa cum laude) Essen University
• 1983-1985 Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG) at Mayo Clinic (Gastroenterology Unit), Rochester, Minnesota, USA
• 1985-1988 Research assistant Internal Medicine Department, Essen University Hospital
• 1987 Board certification in internal medicine
• 1988 Habilitation and Venia Legendi Essen University
• 1988-1996 Senior physician Center for Internal Medicine, Essen University Hospital
• 1991 Board certification in gastroenterology
• 1992 Appointment as Professor
• since 1996 Chief physician, Internal Medicine Department and Head of the Ikaneum Institute Jewish Hospital in Hamburg
• 2002 Co-founder of Indivumed Cancer Research Center at the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg

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