Feb 16, 2023

Thomas Kaiser will be the new IQWiG Director

The current head of IQWiG's Drug Assessment Department succeeds Jürgen Windeler, who is retiring after more than 12 years at the helm of the Institute

portrait photo of Dr. med. Thomas Kaiser

Dr Thomas Kaiser will take up his new position as the Director of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) at the beginning of April. He succeeds Professor Jürgen Windeler, who has headed the independent Institute since September 2010.

Dr Stephan Hofmeister, spokesperson of the Board of the Foundation for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, where he represents the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) Physicians, notes "I would like to thank Jürgen Windeler for his very successful work over the past years. Today, IQWiG enjoys an excellent reputation both nationally and internationally. “With Thomas Kaiser, a renowned and widely respected expert in evidence-based medicine is taking over, who will continue to write the Institute's success story, also in the European context."

Thomas Kaiser is a 53-year-old medical doctor who worked as a system developer before studying medicine. He has headed IQWiG's Drug Assessment Department since the Institute was founded in 2004 (together with Dr Beate Wieseler). Their team is responsible for more than 660 health technology assessments of new drugs within the AMNOG procedure (the early benefit assessment of new drugs according to the Law on the Reorganization of the Pharmaceutical Market), which started in 2011. Kaiser is, among other things, a recipient of the 2011 David Sackett Prize of the German Network for Evidence-Based Medicine (awarded to the Drug Assessment Department for its work on unpublished data).

The IQWiG Director is appointed by the Board of Directors on the proposal of the Foundation Council. The members of the joint self-government in the health care system are represented in these two bodies of the Foundation. These members are the National Association of SHI Physicians, the National Association of SHI Dentists, the German Hospital Federation, and the National Association of SHI Funds. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Health is represented on the Board of Directors. The decision to appoint Thomas Kaiser as IQWiG‘s Director was unanimous.

portrait photo of Dr. med. Thomas Kaiser

Dr. med. Thomas Kaiser

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