It is with great sadness that we are notifying the ISBM community of the passing of Prof. Kristina Orth-Gomér on 14 May 2020. She leaves behind two children, three grandchildren and a life companion who greatly miss her.
Prof Orth-Gomér was the co-founder, second President and long-standing member of the ISBM Board. Since 1987, Prof Orth-Gomér participated at the ISBM founding (Steering/Advisory) committee together with Steve Weiss, Neil Schneiderman, Redford Williams, Irmela Florin and others. She was Program Chair and organized the first ISBM conference 1990 in Uppsala/Sweden. Afterwards, Prof Orth-Gomér became the ISBM president and has remained actively involved with ISBM for the last 30 years. In 2003 she founded the behavioral branch of the third “Task Force for European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in the Clinical Practice”, together with experts from the US, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Germany. In collaboration with Neil Schneiderman and Redford Williams, she initiated the integration of the German College of Psychosomatic Medicine as a full member society of ISBM.
Prof Orth-Gomér’s extensive research focused on coronary heart disease concerning the understanding of behavioral mechanisms, treatment possibilities and health issues in women leaves a lasting contribution for which she will be remembered. Prof Orth-Gomér’s outstanding work in behavioural medicine was recognised by ISBM as the recipient of the “Behavioral Medicine Award” in 2004.
