Since 2003, Prof. Dr. Martin Halle has been Medical Director and Head of the Chair of Preventive Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology at the Klinikum rechts der Isar of TUM. Between 2013 and 2016, he was also Vice Dean of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. From 2020 to 2022, he served as Vice Dean Teaching of the Faculty of Medicine. This year, Prof. Halle is now celebrating "20 Years of Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology" in Munich. To mark the occasion, a symposium will be held at the TUM Campus in the Olympic Park on October 21, 2023, with a program that is both scientifically challenging and entertaining.
The Institute of Media and Communication met Prof. Halle in advance for an interview. In it, the sports cardiologist talks about his early days at TUM, his highlights of the last 20 years and his wishes for the future.
Dear Prof. Halle, first of all, congratulations on 20 years of Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology at TUM! How did you experience this time?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "An extremely large amount has changed in the 20 years. TUM has grown into a particularly outstanding university. The Department of Sport and Health Sciences has definitely gone through phases or even valleys in which it was unclear whether the topics of sport and health would even be extended as a Department and remain in the canon of TUM. The development towards the TUM School of Medicine and Health may be viewed critically by one or the other, but overall - viewed globally - this is a milestone, especially for the fields of sport, health and prevention. Anchoring this at a university shows a great deal of foresight. We now understand in society, science and politics that prevention is an important part of our medical care and is an integral part of it. I also started in 2003 to carry the field of prevention forward. I've been able to implement some aspects that I wouldn't have imagined or dreamed of when I started."
What were your early days at TUM like?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "The first challenge right at the beginning was that I had a certain idea about the care or the implementation of an outpatient clinic. When you are anchored in medicine, you have to set up a department economically, otherwise you cannot run it in the long term. That's a peculiarity of medicine compared to other areas of the university. At Connolly Street, the space was a real challenge. In this respect, I first used the 'start-up money' from TUM to build up an attractive outpatient clinic and recruit staff who could have a professional impact beyond the margins. I was very lucky that Bernd Wolfarth, Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss and Christa Bongarth, among others, came along as senior physicians at the time and supported me. All three have since gone on to hold chairs in sports medicine at the universities of Berlin and Basel or to serve as medical director at the rehabilitation clinic in Höhenried."
How did your Chair evolve as you went along?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "It took about five to six years before I could dedicate myself to the research area. Then the idea grew to go beyond the approaches of current studies and also to initiate projects that in a way correspond to the orientation of pharmacological studies. That is, to conduct randomized controlled trials not only with 100 patients or less, but to make the leap to sample sizes of 1,000 patients as well as multicenter and international studies. We are now certainly a world leader in physical training studies in heart failure. And our study on exercise in dialysis with 1,000 patients randomized is the third largest ever on physical training in medicine."
How can the collaboration between medicine and the sport and health sciences in the new TUM School of Medicine and Health work in the future?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "It will be necessary to go in two directions. The first direction is the close docking of sport and health with the hospital. We have to establish a moving hospital, i.e. include movement in therapy strategies for patients in the hospital and beyond the hospital. The second direction is the more socially preventive aspect of health with the topics of exercise, nutrition and IT-supported interventions. Our expertise lies at the interface between medicine and sport and health. This concerns training, nutrition, but also the psyche of patients. This is extremely challenging, but I think it is obvious. In the near future, we at TUM can become a leader not only in Germany, but worldwide. For this, we need international scientists who are appointed through lighthouse professorships. We need more research buildings in the Olympic area to allow these scientists to work. We have the potential with many good people, but we are only at the absolute beginning. What's needed now is structured development and merging of the two areas."
What have been your personal highlights over the last 20 years?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "The first thing that comes to mind is my 'Lauf10!' campaign on Bavarian television, now in its sixteenth year. It has shown that even as a university professor you can do public relations and work with the media. You need the media to transport these topics to the population. The second thing I'm proud of is my research, with major studies and third-party funding acquisition of about ten million euros over the last five years. That is a number I could never have imagined. But you also need a good team to implement these projects and studies. The third highlight is that, most recently as President of the European Society, I certainly played a major role in building up the field of preventive cardiology and sports cardiology, particularly in Germany and Europe. In Munich, we are now the ones representing sports cardiology as a leading center."
What do you wish for the next few years?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "My goal is to promote and involve the next generation in everything I have done. I try to pass on the knowledge I have and constantly develop our projects. Some of the results I will no longer experience myself, or perhaps only in rudimentary form. But I would still like to initiate and launch some projects that I am convinced are good and right. In my opinion, it is not enough to break down dogmas every now and then. It is necessary to stimulate new thinking and to make aware that no patient is too old or too ill to integrate physical training into therapy. We need to realize that in our current healthcare system, we are producing long-lived sick people - not long-lived healthy people."
What do you do to keep yourself fit?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "I do everything in Munich by bike, even when I commute to the Klinikum rechts der Isar and back. I also have fitness equipment here in my room and in the ambulance that I use in between. Together with my sports scientists, I do 15 minutes of strength fitness training a day, and I always take another employee with me. They also get to know me in a different way if you have ever done sports together. It's important to understand that you can use sports in everyday life for communication within a Chair or a company like TUM. We should use this on a regular basis. It's also about making time in the daily routine for sports opportunities to maintain fitness."
On October 21, the congress "20 Years of Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology" will take place - what can participants look forward to?
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle: "The main topics are Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology. So it will be about heart diseases, old people, dialysis and tumor patients or diabetes. We will cover a broad spectrum on how to integrate sport as medicine. It will not be a normal congress that you have already experienced. In the large lecture hall 1 there will be musical and sports sessions during the breaks. Medical cases will be presented and three to four experts will speak about them in a discussion round, where the audience can actively participate in the form of questions, a TED or via Slido. There will also be 'battles' with pro and con presentations on controversial topics, followed by a joint discussion of who has the better arguments. And there will be a 'Science Slam', where we can experience a kind of 'battle' of professors in short sequences of five minutes and a subsequent vote. So there is something for everyone who is interested in sport and medicine. In the evening we will look back on the last 20 years together with national and international colleagues and friends."
Thank you very much for the interview!
To the registration for the congress „20 Years Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology“
To the programm of the congress „20 Years Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology“
To the homepage of the Chair of Preventive Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Martin Halle
Chair of Preventive Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 56 (Campus C)
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24441
e-mail: sportmed(at)mri.tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photo: private