Felix Burda Award presented! These are the winners

“Oscar for Prevention” is back

Due to the corona pandemic and Christa Maar’s subsequent illness, the Felix Burda Foundation has not been able to invite people to the awards gala since 2019. Now, almost 17 months after the death of the foundation’s director, the 2003 Felix Burda Award, which she founded, is back.

The who’s who of the German prevention community – some 260 selected guests from politics, healthcare, business, media and show business – gathered this Sunday at Berlin’s Hotel Adlon Kempinski to honor the people who are in a special have shown an impressive commitment to the prevention of the second most common cancer in Germany.

The winners of the Felix Burda Award 2024

This year, the 13-member jury selected six nominees from 29 submitted applications in the two categories ‘Medicine & Science’ and ‘Commitment of the Year’. Two outstanding winners were awarded that evening:

Winner of the ‘Commitment of the Year’ award: ‘Welcome Darmstadt’, a special program in ORF’s late night talk show „ Welcome Austria”

Laudator Elena Uhlig, married to Austrian Fritz Karl, first explained to the audience the situation of colon cancer in the neighboring country before praising Welcome Austria’s “quota guarantee” for its special program “Welcome Darmstadt”.

On the initiative of filmmaker Andreas Kreimaier, a special program was produced by Superfilm on behalf of ORF, in which the presenter duo Christoph Grissemann and Dirk Stermann conveyed in a humorous and at the same time serious manner that colonoscopy is a painless, uncomplicated, safe treatment. and effective preventive research into colon cancer. Uhlig emphasized that this application fit perfectly with the tone of the Felix Burda Foundation, which also focuses on humor and lightness in health communication.

Prize winner “Medicine & Science”: “Novel Strategies for Optimized Colorectal Cancer Screening in Germany”, Thomas Heisser, Prof. Dr. Michael Hoffmeister and Prof. Dr. Hermann Brenner from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg

Dr. Andreas Gassen, chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurers (KBV), made it clear in his praising speech that the evaluation of the award winners shows alarming weaknesses in the current preventive care offering and also reveals solutions. to increase potential. More cases of colon cancer could be prevented if a critical gap in care for people aged 70 and older were closed.
The epidemiologists at the German Cancer Research Center used a validated simulation model called COSIMO to compare the long-term effects of the current screening program with possible alternatives. A third colonoscopy in men aged 70 and older could reduce mortality by 9 percent. An offer of stool tests in this age group would also provide comparable positive values. Women would benefit significantly from an offer of three colonoscopies from the age of 50, every 10 years.

Gassen warned that politicians should look at this data and optimize the program for the sake of all our health.

The winners in the ‘Medicine & Science’ category also received a voucher for an advertorial worth more than 25,800 euros from Leonie Bücher, director of the pharmacy magazine My Life. “The winners of the DKFZ Prize have the opportunity to inform people throughout Germany about their surprising research results. In this way, excellent science reaches more than 1 million readers from the Felix Burda Award stage in more than 7,000 pharmacies,” says Bücher.

Memory of Christa Maar

Soon after founding the Felix Burda Foundation in 2001, Christa Maar realized: “Colon cancer is not a medical problem, but rather a communication problem.” And so Bowel Cancer Month in March and the Felix Burda Award emerged as communicative events that were purposeful and diverse. Verona Pooth emphasized on the stage of the Felix Burda Award that the possibilities for prevention could be reported. As a ‘natural talent’ in the field of communication and a prominent testimonial, the moderator supported Christa Maar from the start and was able to report on countless meetings and campaign shoots with ‘the boss’ in a humorous and visibly moved manner. A pleasantly cheerful look back at the woman who improved cancer prevention in Germany like no other.

Philipp Welte, CEO of Hubert Burda Media, showed in his speech that these successes in politics and medicine are also due to the special personality and willpower of Christa Maar. He made it clear that Christa Maar’s life’s work will continue in the family business: “In memory of Christa Maar, we as a company – also in the spirit of Dr. Hubert Burda – an important concern to continue supporting the foundation in its work. Just like the Felix Burda Foundation, we as a media company see it as our mission to draw attention to the relevance of healthcare.”

And Heinz Spengler, chairman of the Felix Burda Foundation, thanked the guests: “You contribute to Felix Burda’s wish – to want to spare other people his fate – and to the ideas of his mother Christa Maar – who supported her mission son has successfully performed. Get on.”

Ehrenfelix

Honorary Felix Prize winner Susanna Zsoter, who received the Felix Burda Award in 2021 as part of the Felix Burda Award, which was only possible digitally at the time, finally enjoyed the applause on the gala stage. The woman from Zirndorf, who was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 28 and is now committed to prevention as a palliative patient and survivor, appealed to the decision-makers in the room in her speech: “Germany was once the pharmacy of the world and is now behind in the use of health data only for the patient himself, but especially for subsequent research. This costs human lives. Ultimately in the saddest sense.”

There were also passionate words from Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Michael Baumann. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) – who also worked with Christa Maar in the strategy group of the National Decade Against Cancer – emphasized that prevention is the strongest weapon against cancer. The potential of prevention and early detection – the combination of which can prevent 60 percent of cancer deaths – is far from exhausted. “Each of us can make an individual contribution to this, for example through health-conscious behavior,” says Baumann. “But we also need politics to translate ideas into strategies that achieve long-term effects.”

The Felix Burda Award 2024 is supported by IhrApotheken.de, Olympus, Gastrointestinal Doctors, Springer Medizin, Genesis and FOCUS. Like FOCUS online, it is owned by Hubert Burda Media.

RFE

Related