The Department of Medical Psychology (now Unit Medical Psychology) was established in 1981. First department chair was Erwin Ringel, a global pioneer in suicide research. Until 2010, Gernot Sonneck was department chair, since 2017 Birgit Hladschik-Kermer is the head of the Unit.
Medical psychology addresses topics relevant to the medical context at all bio-psycho-social levels, such as doctor-patient communication, coping processes, psychosomatic aspects of ill-health, and health promotion—e.g., stress management, burnout prevention, and rehabilitation; as well as with aspects of developmental psychology and with topics and problems specific to different life stages.
The areas of “medical education,” communication in the healthcare sector, interdisciplinary pain therapy, psychotherapy research, and “arts and humanities” are current focal points of the Unit Medical Psychology.
This broad scope of expertise is also reflected in the field of teaching.
The department is actively involved in the design, implementation, and delivery of courses, including those within the longitudinal communication curriculum at the Medical University of Vienna. In addition to teaching communication skills to students, fostering corresponding teaching competencies among faculty members is a core focus of medical psychology. Current projects are driving the transfer of knowledge acquired in the classroom into everyday clinical practice.