Udo Boeken has been an attending cardiac surgeon at University Hospital Düsseldorf since 2002. He is the Head of local Thoracic Transplantation programme and Chairman of the working group “extracorporeal circulation and mechanival circulatory support” of the German Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG). Udo is also the Chairman of the working group 17 (thoracic tranplantations) of the German Society of Cardiology (DGK).