Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative

Barbara A. Rath, MD PhD is a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist with profound experience in clinical care and translational research in Europe, the US, and Latin America. Dr. Rath is co-founder and chair of the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative (ViVI; www.vi-vi.org), an international think tank and non-profit organization focused on infectious disease research and communication.  The Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative Think Tank consists of scientific experts from developed and developing countries with the shared goal of improving vaccine acceptance, safety and effectiveness worldwide. The group has worked intensely on the use of big data to improve vaccine safety surveillance.  During ist first ten years in existence, the ViVI Think Tank (which was funded in Vienna, Austria in 2007) has published 30+ peer-reveiwed scientific publications on different aspects of vaccine research and communication with a special focus on global health.

Dr. Rath attended medical school in Germany, Spain and the US, and obtained her doctoral degrees in Switzerland and France. In addition to an infectious disease fellowship at Stanford, she received pediatric residency and infectious disease subspecialty training at Duke and Tulane Universities, USA. Dr. Rath is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine, UK (WHO Collaborating Centre on Pandemic Influenza and Research), and board member with the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses (ISIRV).  In collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute and the School of Design Thinking in Berlin, Germany, Dr. Rath’s team developed mobile applications empowering parents to understand the vaccination record of their children, and others helping physicians to monitor disease severity when treating patients with acute respiratory viral infections.  With a passion for helping children in challenging situations, she also developed ad-hoc programs assessing the health needs of displaced children after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and during the peak of refugee arrivals in 2015/16 to Germany.  Both projects brought her back to New Orleans, where she is now developing the US Headquarters for the non-profit organisation.