Alscher studied medicine at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg from 1984 to 1990..[1] In 1990, he obtained a PhD in human medicine (magna cum laude);[2] his dissertation's topic was: "Iron, copper and zinc concentrations of the liver and their significance for computed tomographic liver density measurements". He received his medical licence in 1992 and moved to the Robert Bosch Hospital (RBK) Stuttgart in the department of gastroenterology. He underwent training as an internist[1] with rotations in gastroenterology, cardiology, haematology and nephrology.[2][3] In 1996, Alscher worked at the RBK in the Department of General Internal Medicine and Nephrology. The following year he completed his specialist training in internal medicine and was appointed senior physician in 1998.[1]
From 1998, he worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School (US), and in 2001 at University Hospital Denver (US).[2] He was awarded the specialty designation Nephrologist (2002) and Hypertensiologist (2004). In 2003, he was habilitated at the University of Tübingen[2] and appointed consultant in 2004.[1] In 2007, Alscher took over the provisional management of the emergency room centre at the RBK. In 2008, the University of Tübingen appointed him as an associate professor. In the same year, he finally became head physician of the emergency admission centre and the department of general internal medicine and nephrology at the RBK.[1] In 2009, he was elected medical director of the RBK's overall clinics.
In 2011, Alscher became chairman of the AG Telematik of the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Social Affairs of Baden-Württemberg.[2] After the Gesundheitstelematik research group was founded in the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) Baden-Württemberg in 2012, he was elected its chairman in 2013.[4][5] In 2014, he was a subject expert of the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss in Berlin.[6]
In 2016 he became Managing Medical Director of Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus GmbH,[7][8] the Robert Bosch Gesellschaft für Medizinische Forschung (RBMF) and the MVZ (Medizinisches Versorgungszentrum) society at RBK.[6]
During the founding of the Bosch Health Campus, Alscher managed it together with Luise Hölscher, who resigned from the management in 2021. Since then, Alscher has been the sole managing director. On 1 April 2022, the Bosch Health Campus was officially opened.[9][10]
Scientific work
Alscher has worked particularly in the field of peritoneal dialysis, systematically working on the clinical picture of encapsulating peritoneal dialysis. Mortality, which was previously 85%, was reduced to 19.4% in treated patients.[11] Another focus is on medical expert systems (computer programs that can assist physicians in solving more complex problems like an expert by deriving recommended actions from a knowledge base), the analysis of which, together with physicians from the US and Sweden, has led to several papers.[12] Alscher has organised several symposia and annual congresses, including the Southwest German Society for Internal Medicine 2014 in Stuttgart and the annual meeting of the German Society for Nephrology in Berlin 2016.[13][14]
Furthermore, he advocates in the areas of framework conditions for clinical research, new health professions and software for knowledge organisations.[6][15][16]
Memberships and scientific associations
Board member of the Institute for Digital Medicine[17]
Member of the scientific advisory board of the Robert Bosch Stiftung since 05/2004. (Stuttgart)
Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN) since 2007.
Vice President of the German Society of Nephrology[2][18]
Chairman of the AG Gesundheitstelematik in the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) Baden-Württemberg[4][5] since 06/2013.
Technical expert of the Federal Joint Committee (Berlin)[6] since 08/2014.
Chairman of the Southwest German Society of Internal Medicine since 09/2015[6][19]
Advisory board of the Coordination Office Telemedicine Baden-Württemberg (BW) since 07/2015.
President of the German Society of Nephrology[20][21]
Chairman of the Digital Health Baden-Württemberg e.V.[6][22]
International Society of Nephrology
National Kidney Foundation, USA
International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis
European Renal Association – European Dialysis and TransplantationAssociation
German Society for Internal Medicine
German Society for Interdisciplinary Emergency Departments
Member of the Digital Advisory Board and spokesperson for digitisation topics of the Ministry of Social Affairs Baden-Württemberg[6]
Delegate of the State and District Medical Association of Baden-Württemberg[6][24]
Publications
Alscher has published more than 330 scientific articles and book chapters[25] with the main focus on kidney diseases incl. Renal replacement (peritoneal dialysis, haemodialysis, transplantation), systemic diseases, rheumatic diseases and emergency care.[2] He also gave over 500 external lectures.[25]
Books
Reference Nephrology. Thieme Verlag. 2019. ISBN 978-3-13-240001-6.
With Götz Geldner: Handbuch Extrakorporale Organunterstützung. Urban & Fischer Publishers. 2019. ISBN 978-3-437-22791-2.
With Ulrich Kuhlmann, Joachim Böhler, Friedrich C. Luft and Ulrich Kunzendorf: Nephrology: Pathophysiology – Clinic – Renal Replacement Procedures. Thieme Verlag. 2015. ISBN 978-3-13-700206-2.
^J. Latus, C. Ulmer, P. Fritz, B. Rettenmaier, D. Biegger, T. Lang, G. Ott, C. Scharpf, M. Kimmel, W. Steurer, M. D. Alscher, N. Braun: Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis: a rare, serious but potentially curable complication of peritoneal dialysis-experience of a referral centre in Germany. In: Nephrol Dial Transplant. Vol. 28, No. 4, Apr 2013, pp. 1021–1030. doi:10.1093/ndt/gfs159
^Matthias Wallenfels: E-Health: Innovationsoffene Nephrologen. In: Ärzte Zeitung, No. 178, p. 23, 14 September 2016
^Mark Dominik Alscher and Manfred Hopfeld: Telematics and Health Professions. In: Rethinking Health Professions, Re-regulating Health Professions – A Robert Bosch Stiftung Memorandum.
^Mark Dominik Alscher: Computereinsatz in der Medizin: Chance für eine hochwertige Versorgung. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt 37/105, p. 1897. 12 September 2008.
^Stephan Maaß: Kommt kein Mann zum Arzt... – "Welt" series: Telemedicine could make visits to the doctor's office superfluous – and save the health insurance companies billions. In: Die Welt: No. 162, p. 12. 15 July 2013.
^Sabine Rieser: Dialysis Care in Germany (II): Securing the high standard. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 15/111, p. 623. 11 April 2014.
^"Board of Directors". Southwest German Society of Internal Medicine. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
