The Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine was founded in 1993 and developed out of the chair of Medical Sociology. It is part of the Faculty of Medicine of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Moreover, it is closely connected to the local Universitätsklinikum with regard to contents, buildings and administration.

The two chairs of the institute are hold by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Klaus Berger and Univ.-Prof. Dr. André Karch.

Klaus Berger, who has been working for the institute since 1996, took over the management in 2010. His research focuses on neuroepidemiology and health systems research.

André Karch has taken over the department of clinical epidemiology from Hans-Werner Hense in 2018. He works mainly on biomarkers and infectious disease epidemiology.

The institute has about twenty academic staff members and brings together medics, psychologists and statisticians with natural scientists, healthcare professionals, pharmacists and demographers. In addition, a team of the same size provides a solid ground for our academic research by managing the data, working in the study team or by carrying out administrative tasks.