Professor Dr med. Dipl.-Psych. Karl Überla

The Institute of Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology (IBE) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich mourns the loss of its founding director, Professor Karl Überla, who passed away on 12 June 2024 at the age of 89.

In addition to his medical studies at the universities of Heidelberg, Munich, Innsbruck and Freiburg and his doctorate in medicine in 1960, he also studied psychology, which he completed in 1962 with the main diploma examination. In the same year, he received his licence to practise medicine.

From 1962 to 1963, he was a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois before moving to the University of Mainz as a research assistant. He was habilitated there in 1968. This was followed by professorships and leading positions at the University of Ulm and, from 1974, at the LMU Munich, where he held the Chair of Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology until 2004.

In 1979, he was honoured with the Paul Martini Prize for his scientific achievements. From 1981 to 1985, he headed the Federal Health Office and in 1992 initiated the postgraduate degree programme in Public Health and Epidemiology at LMU.

Between 1994 and 2000, he was spokesman for the Munich Research Network Public Health and since 1997 for the Bavarian Research Network Public Health. From 2002 to 2005, he was also a board member of the TMF - Technology and Methods Platform for Networked Medical Research in Berlin. From 1975 to 2006 he was editor of the series "GMDS Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie".

Over several decades, Professor Überla has launched important initiatives in patient-oriented clinical research, health services research and public health, thereby shaping and strengthening medical statistics and epidemiology in Germany.