Departments and Working Groups

Epidemiology deals with the frequency and distribution of health and disease in the population and the variables that influence it. It contributes to research into the causes of disease, analyses disease distributions and evaluates intervention measures. The findings of epidemiological research form an essential basis for the prevention and control of diseases.

The Department of Health Economics was founded in 2013. Health economics is a research area that applies economic theories, models and empirical methods to the analysis of decision-making processes of individuals, health service providers and political actors in relation to health and health care.

Medical psychology deals with the foundations and application of psychological and sociological findings in medicine, focusing on those conditions that can promote, maintain and restore health.

Das Aufgabengebiet des Faches Primary Care Medicine umfasst den gesamten menschlichen Lebensbereich, die Krankheitserkennung und Krankenbehandlung sowie die Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention aller Personen, unabhängig von Alter, Geschlecht und Art der Gesundheitsstörung. Die Allgemeinmedizin zeichnet sich vor allem durch die 3 Ms aus: Mehrdeutigkeit der Symptome, Mehrfacherkrankte und Mehrdimensionalität des Behandlungssettings.

Social and preventive medicine deals with the interaction of social conditions, health and disease; it is also referred to as the study for and of health policy.

Die Umwelthygiene und Umweltmedizin zählt alle chemischen, physikalischen, psychosozialen und gesellschaftlichen Umwelteinflüsse und deren schädigende oder fördernde Auswirkungen auf den Menschen zu ihren unmittelbaren Aufgabengebieten. Sie befasst sich mit der Erforschung, Verhütung und Früherkennung umweltbedingter Gesundheitsrisiken und umweltassoziierter Aspekte der Gesundheitsförderung.

Tilman Kühn holds the professorship in Public Health Nutrition (§ 98) jointly established by MedUni Vienna and the University of Vienna. At MedUni Vienna, the nutritionist and epidemiologist from Heidelberg is assigned to the Centre for Public Health. His work focuses on nutrition-related aspects of public health.

Tilman Kühn focuses on the prevention of diet-related diseases (with an emphasis on obesity and cancer) and plant-based diets. With his joint professorship in Public Health Nutrition at MedUni Vienna and the University of Vienna, Kühn covers a comparatively young discipline that draws on parts of public health and nutritional sciences and in particular encompasses the social, economic and political contexts that affect the lives of certain population groups and thus promote the development of diet-related diseases.

"The consideration of nutrition as an important determinant of individual health is fundamentally changing under the impact of climate and environmental crises," says Kühn. "Not least the 2019 EAT-Lancet Commission report shows that more plant-based diets are co-critical to achieving the 1.5 degree target from the Paris Agreement. Our research is therefore aimed at better understanding the health aspects of more plant-based diets. Besides, the main focus is on the prevention of chronic diseases through nutritional interventions in ageing societies."

About Tilman Kühn
Following his diploma studies in nutritional sciences at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Tilman Kühn completed a Master's degree in Public Health Nutrition at the University of Applied Sciences in Fulda by 2010. Three years of research at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg were followed by a summa cum laude PhD in epidemiology in 2014 and a teaching position at the Faculty of Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital, which Kühn held until his appointment in Vienna, along with other positions in the UK, for example. He completed his habilitation in epidemiology in 2020.