Prof. emeritus Dr. Erland Erdmann, FESC, FACC, FAHA was head of the cardiac catheterization laboratory of the university of Munich before he was elected head of the department of Internal Medicine of the University of Cologne. From 1993 – 2012 he served as director of the clinic for cardiology, angiology, pneumology and intensive care medicine in the heart center of the university of Cologne. His main scientific interests are pathophysiology and treatment options of heart failure as well as the role of diabetes in cardiovascular disease. He has served in the steering committees of several major international drug and device trials directed to improve cardiovascular diseases such as CIBIS I – III, CARE-HF, PROACTIVE, SERVE-HF (all of which have been published in NEJM or The Lancet). Prof. Erdmann is editor of the main German textbook  of cardiology (Klinische Kardiologie), now in the 8th edition and editor of several scientific journals among them the Deutsche Medizininische Wochenschrift (German weekly medical journal).