New director of studies at the MCI - Alexander Hörbst

Now that the start of the new MCI Master's program "Medical Technologies" is fixed for autumn 2020, Prof. Dr. Alexander Hörbst has been appointed as program director. The proven medical computer scientist with profound expertise in the field of digital health emerged from a multi-stage appointment process as the first in line and was confirmed by the MCI Advisory Board as head of the study program.

Alexander Hörbst originally started his academic career with a double degree in business administration and economics at the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, which he later supplemented with a degree in computer science. His dissertation in Biomedical Informatics in 2009 was followed by his habilitation in Medical Informatics at the University of Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT) in 2013. His research focuses on digital health, telemedicine, robotics in healthcare, networked information systems and data analytics. In addition to his role as associate professor at UMIT, he has headed the Institute for eHealth Research & Innovation (formerly Research Division for eHealth and Telemedicine) since 2008. He was a long-standing board member of the European Society for Medical Informatics and has been a member of the WHO Expert Roster for Digital Health since 2019. Numerous other memberships, publications and guest professorships round off his profile.

The English-language Master's degree programme "Medical Technologies" complements the MCI focus in the area of Technology & Life Sciences. The programme combines the latest trends in medical technology with current global developments in digitalisation. Course director Alexander Hörbst is looking forward to the new challenge: "Just as the concept of health has evolved, so has the field of medical technology. A modern degree programme does justice to this by understanding medical technology as a complex ecosystem of, among other things, hardware, software, concepts, users and recipients of services. The overriding goal is to support health holistically, for example in terms of prevention, economic aspects or patient benefits."

MCI Rector Andreas Altmann thanks the entire development team of the new Master's programme: "The new Master's programme not only represents an excellent academic education for state-of-the-art medical technology, but also stands for an exemplary cooperation with the universities on site, first and foremost the Medical University of Innsbruck, and with numerous corporate partners. My special thanks go to Andreas Mehrle, who as head of the Mechatronics Department at the MCI has played a leading role in the development of the course