Our study team

Louise Teschemacher, Prof. Dr. Katharina Schmitt und Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Constanze Pfitzer
image credits

Louise Teschemacher, Prof. Dr. Katharina Schmitt und Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Constanze Pfitzer - © 2023 DHZC Sarah Paff

We are an interdisciplinary study team from the DHZC work areas Congenital Heart Disease and Pediatric Cardiology, Surgery of Congenital Heart Disease, Psychocardiology and Developmental Pediatrics in Cardiac Medicine.

We support the participating families during pregnancy and also after birth of the child with congenital heart disease. In acute stress situations, our study psychologist is available for a relieving conversation. If support beyond this is needed, we will help to refer you to the appropriate place.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Constanze Pfitzer

Principal Investigator (PI)

Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology at the DHZC

Prof. Dr. Katharina Schmitt

Professor of developmental pediatrics in cardiac medicine

Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology at the DHZC

Louise Teschemacher, M.Sc.

Study psychologist

Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology at the DHZC

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Constanze Pfitzer leads the study project "Congenital heart disease - what now?". She studied and obtained her doctorate in human medicine at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. She then began her clinical training at the Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology at Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC) in 2015. There she joined the working group of Prof. Katharina Schmitt, MD. Constanze Pfitzer's research focuses on the psychomotor development of children with congenital heart disease. She habilitated on this subject at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin in 2020. Constanze Pfitzer is a specialist in pediatric and adolescent medicine.

In several studies together with the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Disease, Ms Pfitzer examined, among other things, the educational status of children and adults with congenital heart disease. In summary, these studies showed that the psychomotor development of children with congenital heart disease is very complex and that prenatal development in particular has a decisive influence here. In the present study, Constanze Pfitzer would like to investigate this important phase and the many different possibilities of influence.

Katharina Schmitt has been at the DHZC since 2002, and since 2015 she is a senior physician at the Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology. Since 2005, she is leading the Experimental Pediatric Cardiology working group, and since 2012 she is the research and teaching fellow at the Department for Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology. Amongst other things, she is founder and leader of the Family-Centered Care project (FCC project), as well as leader of a project on psychomotor assessments in children with congenital heart disease (LEADER project). She habilitated in 2011 with the research paper "Hypothermia for organ protection". In 2019, she was appointed as an associate professor at Charité. Since 2023 she holds a W3 professorship for "Developmental Pediatrics in Cardiac Medicine" and heads the Department of Psychocardiology and Developmental Pediatrics in Cardiac Medicine at DHZC.

Louise Teschemacher is a psychologist and researcher at Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology at Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité.
She studied psychology in Groningen (NL) and then worked as a researcher at the Clinic for Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Charité. There she was the scientific coordinator of a study that investigated the satisfaction of pregnant women with the care they received during pregnancy and birth. A particular focus of the study was on the care of immigrant and refugee women. Since 2020, Louise Teschemacher is doing her training as a psychological psychotherapist specialised in cognitive behavioural therapy.