(Vienna, 02 February 2026) Philipp Emanuel Bartko has assumed the professorship for Structural Heart Diseases (§ 99 – 1) at the Medical University of Vienna. This professorship addresses a highly innovative and rapidly growing field of cardiology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of structural diseases of the heart, particularly heart valve diseases.
Structural heart diseases are among the central disease entities in cardiovascular medicine and increasingly require individualized therapeutic concepts. Modern patient care is based on close collaborative coordination of conservative, interventional, and surgical treatment strategies, as well as on highly specialized cardiovascular imaging and risk stratification.
At the University Clinic for Internal Medicine II, Philipp Bartko leads the Structural Heart Disease Program. In this role, he is substantially involved in diagnostics, interdisciplinary planning, and the development of corresponding therapeutic concepts. Collaboration within the Comprehensive Center for Cardiovascular Medicine (CCVM) plays an important role, particularly with regard to interdisciplinary coordination of clinical care, research, and university teaching. Collaborative decision-making is also carried out within the “Heart Team,” involving the disciplines of cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesiology, radiology, vascular surgery, and angiology, with the aim of developing personalized treatment strategies. Through this interdisciplinary collaboration, several novel interventional procedures have been developed, jointly implemented, and successfully established in clinical practice. As a result, the Medical University of Vienna has assumed a leading role in innovation in the field of structural heart diseases—both nationally and internationally. Interdisciplinary procedures implemented include, among others, transfemoral tricuspid and mitral valve implantation as well as leaflet modification techniques.
Philipp Bartko places a particular emphasis on teaching at the Medical University of Vienna, as well as on mentoring medical students, PhD candidates, and colleagues in training. In addition, an international fellowship program in the field of structural interventions has been established.
Following his medical studies and PhD program in Vascular Biology, Philipp Bartko completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital (Advanced Valve Disease Research Fellowship, Schrödinger Fellowship).
In research and teaching, Bartko focuses on the pathophysiology, quantification, and prognosis of structural heart diseases, as well as on the further development of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The professorship thus contributes to the advancement of a key field of innovation in cardiovascular medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.