Ralf Paschke

 Ralf Paschke is a Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology, Oncology, Pathology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. He served as Division Head of Endocrinology at the University of Calgary and Zone Head of Endocrinology in Calgary from July 2015 to May 2019. In November 2015, he was elected as the chair of the provincial endocrine tumour team in Alberta.

Ralf Paschke spent 4 years as a Heisenberg Professor in a molecular laboratory in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research at the Universite Libre in Brussels, Belgium working on the molecular etiology of hot thyroid nodules and the mechanism of activation of the TSHR. He was appointed Professor of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at the University of Leipzig in 1995. His major research interests include thyroid cancer, thyroid nodules, molecular diagnostics of indeterminate thyroid nodule fine needle cytologies, the TSH-receptor and diseases caused by TSH-receptor mutations. He trained in Pathology, Internal Medicine and Endocrinology in the university hospitals of Frankfurt, Mannheim/Heidelberg and Muenster and USC in LosAngeles. He served for 9 years as Director of the Medical Department III at Leipzig University with the sections Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nephrology. He was the coordinator for endocrine research and deputy chairman of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is the author of more than 350 original journal articles, co-author of several thyroid guidelines and serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Thyroid and repeatedly the JCEM.

His work in Calgary focused on implementation of

• guideline based thyroid nodule ultrasound malignancy risk assessment and post operative thyroid ultrasound in 9/2017
• Malignancy risk assessment for Bethesda thyroid nodule FNAC categories in Calgary
• guideline based lobectomy proposal for patients with thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer 4/2017 and subsequent revisions leading to 17% lobectomies for thyroid cancer in Calgary.
• a thyroid nodule diagnostic pathway 3/2018 together with the Calgary Primary Care Networks (PCNs)
• the Calgary ThyroSPEC™ panel for the molecular FNA diagnostics of indeterminate thyroid nodules covering 117 point mutations and 23 rearrangements by Alberta Precision Laboratories and Alberta Health Services 7/2020 as a routine reimbursed reflex test for indeterminate thyroid nodule FNA cytologies

He also works on

• the European Thyroid Association guideline task force for a revised thyroid nodule guideline and
• the molecular etiology and molecular therapeutic stratification of thyroid cancer
• and focusses his clinical work on the treatment of patients with high recurrence risk and metastatic radioiodine resistant metastatic thyroid cancer based on his previous experience as a local PI for several tyrosine kinase inhibitor phase 3 studies for patients with metastatic radioiodine resistant thyroid cancer

The Department of Medicine Annual Report 2018-2019 features the Thyroid