Dr. Florian Neuhann

Senior Researcher

Dr. med. Florian Neuhann is a board-certified specialist in Internal Medicine and subspecialties Tropical Medicine and Environmental Health

During my time in specializing I developed specific interest in chronic conditions and the management of Diabetes at a time when patient empowerment and education was still in its infancy. After specializing in Internal Medicine, I took a chance to work with the University Institute for Environmental Hygiene and Environmental Health at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf where I was both involved in large environmental health epidemiological studies, mainly among school children and in individual counselling and care for people with potentially critical exposures to environmental risks or toxins. This work built the basis for my doctoral thesis.

Returning back to clinical medicine, I became a consultant for internal medicine at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi Tanzania. It was a turning point in my medical career since I was confronted with HIV/AIDS at a peak time of the pandemic particularly in Sub Saharan African countries. At the same time, we started the first specialized outpatient clinic for Diabetes in Tanzania, apart from the clinic at the Muhimbili University in Dar es Salaam.

During this time KCMC became also the first medical college outside Muhimbili. All these tasks were extremely challenging and taught me a lot but I could also contribute to building capacity among colleagues, health care workers and patients. I was appointed as a lecturer for this new medical college involved in curriculum development, classroom and clinical teaching. 

On my return I first did my Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Liverpool School before joining again the University Clinic of the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, this time in the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases. I mainly worked in the outpatient clinic for travelers, but was also exposed to the full spectrum of the clinic. 

When I saw an opening for supporting a HIV clinic in Malawi introducing antiretroviral therapy in this setting, I needed to take this up, after having seen all the suffering during the times of none available treatment. Building up on my previous experience in tropical diseases, chronic care, diabetes education, I could contribute considerably to the set up of the Lighthouse Clinic in Lilongwe Malawi. 

By the end of that contract I decided to look for an opportunity to combine work to improve health care in low resource settings with working from Germany and found this opportunity in the now Heidelberg Institute for Global Health. In teaching and research, I concentrated on questions of access to care, models of care and quality mainly in the HIV but also for Tb for underprivileged populations. Next to my work at the Heidelberg Institute I worked as a part time consulting doctor in the Tb control and support unit of the municipal health authority in Cologne. During the COVID pandemic this position led to my contribution in the local epidemic control strategy and implementation.   

With access to treatment PLHIV tend to live longer and develop also non-communicable co- morbidities and this led to the need to integrate service for these clients and brings together the two lines in my career, infectious diseases and NCDs. 

I still feel the passion to contribute to improving health for underserved populations anywhere including the need for strengthening medical education and CME. Hence, I am involved in several projects in Zambia and Malawi on HIV and co-morbidities. Prominently, I am engaged in a cooperative project on e-learning, blended learning at the Levy Mwanawasa Medical University, the largest medical school in Zambia where I have been appointed as honorary full professor. In Germany I am engaged in a project “Optimized Tb Care in Germany” and I chair the association Friends of Lighthouse, Malawi.