Ingrid Zechmeister-Koss has been the institute’s director since January 2025. 

She has worked at the AIHTA since 2020 and at the former Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for HTA (LBI-HTA) from 2006 to 2015 and from 2018 to 2020. Her research focuses on health economics and the evaluation of public health interventions, with a particular interest in mental health. She holds a doctoral degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, a Master's degree in Health Studies and Management from the University of Brighton, UK, and a degree in biomedical laboratory sciences. Prior to her current role, she worked as a researcher at several institutions, including the Department of Social Policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the Institute for Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research in Vienna. She also gained experience as a health economist at the Austrian Social Insurance and as a biomedical laboratory scientist at the Vienna General Hospital.

Memberships:

• Gesundheit Österreich GmbH: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
• Statistics Austria / Health Statistics: Member of the Advisory Board
• Advisory Board for Psychosocial Health: Member of the Advisory Board
• Austrian Health Economics Association (ATHEA): Member of the Extended Executive Board

Smiljana Blagojevic has been with AIHTA since 2006. In the Science Communication department, she is primarily responsible for the graphic design of publications and the website. 

She earned a degree in agronomy from the University of Kragujevac in Serbia. From 2002 to 2005, she worked as an office assistant at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) in Canada.

Niccolò Borri joined AIHTAin March 2026. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Bologna and a bachelor’s degree in economics and management from the University of Florence. He graduated with a PhD in Economics from the Central European University in 2026, specialising in applied microeconometrics and health economics. Before joining AIHTA, he gained research experience as a research analyst at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, where he worked on a project funded by the Tuscany Region, analysing the costs of multimorbidity using administrative data.

Alba Colicchia has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since January 2025. She primarily works on preparation of HTA reports on high-cost and specialized hospital medicines for the Austrian Appraisal Board (Bewertungsboard), as well as on projects in the fields of human genetics and telemedicine.

She previously completed her Bachelor's degree in Biology at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, focusing on human- and microbiology. She then completed her Master of Public Health at the Medical University of Vienna. During this time, she was involved in research at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), where she studied the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents.

Aline started her position as senior researcher at AIHTA in November 2025. With the beginning of 2026 she took over the lead of the Research area Public Health and complex interventions. Her research primarily focuses on projects addressing public health issues as well as health economic questions.

Aline holds an academic background in health management and health promotion (University of Applied Sciences Burgenland) as well as a PhD in public health, nursing sciences from Aarhus University, Denmark.

Before joining AIHTA, Aline worked as a health economist at the Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions, as a researcher at the Institute for Pharmaeconomic Research, and most recently as Global Market Access Manager at the medical device manufacturer Coloplast A/S. Through these positions, she gained extensive experience in public health, health services research, health economics, project management, and international collaboration. 

Judit Erdös is a Senior Researcher and has been working at AIHTA (formerly LBI-HTA) since 2012.  She primarily works on the assessment of medical devices, digital health technologies, and pharmaceuticals. Her current research focuses on Joint Clinical Assessments of medical devices and pharmaceuticals under the European HTA Regulation (HTAR).

She has been actively involved in European HTA collaboration for many years through EUnetHTA and, more recently, the implementation of the HTAR. She contributes as an author to Joint Clinical Assessments and actively participates in several European HTA working groups, supporting the development of harmonised methodologies and collaborative processes for HTA across Europe.

Judit obtained her bachelor’s degree in international management and business from Budapest Business School in 2009, followed by a master's degree in International Healthcare Management from the Management Center Innsbruck in 2011.

Daniel Fabian has been as a researcher at AIHTA since January 2023. He primarily works on projects in the fields of health policy, health economics and assessments of high-cost and specialised pharmaceuticals. He is interested in access-based pricing, equity and sustainability.

After completing a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Vienna, he completed his MSc in Public Policy and Human Development as a double degree at the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) and at the Universiteit Maastricht and graduated cum laude.

Maria Laura Fagioli has joined the AIHTA team in June 2026 and supports the institute in finance and human resources.

She brings extensive international experience as a multilingual translator and instructor within the scientific and public sectors.

Driven by a passion for modern technologies, she has also specialized in full-stack web development. She leverages this combination of strong communication skills, logical data management, and digital know-how to efficiently support internal processes and the scientific team.
 

Lucia Gassner has been working as a Senior Researcher at AIHTA since June 2020. Additionally, since 2020, she has been active as a Lecturer in Public Health at the Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) Salzburg. She primarily works on projects in the fields of public health interventions to support evidence-based policy decisions in healthcare and high-tech medicine (evaluation of individual medical procedures). Her current thematic research focus is on mental health and digital health.

She holds academic degrees in educational science, graduating in 2011 from the University of Vienna. Furthermore, she completed her PhD theses in 2023 at RMIT University Melbourne (Biomedical Engineering) and at the University of Vienna (Sport Science), where she investigated the impacts of sport climbing on the quality of life in Parkinson’s patients.

Prior to joining AIHTA, she worked in clinical trials at the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna. Additionally, she operated as a process manager and medical training therapist at the Vocational Education and Rehabilitation Centre, and as a project manager and consultant at the Austrian Ministry of Education.

Andrea Fried has been responsible for science communication at AIHTA since 2025 and has additionally served as a People Lead since August 2026.

She has many years of experience as a freelance journalist (Austria Press Agency, Der Standard, ÄrzteWoche) and as editor-in-chief of the Austrian Hospital Newspaper (ÖKZ). She then served as managing director of ARGE Selbsthilfe Österreich and the Austrian League for Child and Youth Health. Most recently, she was responsible for a wide range of communication tasks at Gesundheit Österreich GmbH.

Lena Grabenhofer has been working as a research officer at AIHTA since January 2025. She primarily works on projects in the fields of public health and complex interventions, as well as in health economics and health services research. Her current research focus is on health care provision and prevention.

After completing her bachelor's degree in sociology at the University of Vienna, she completed her master's degree in socioeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. During her studies, she specialised in the fields of health and equal opportunity. In addition to her work at the AIHTA, she is currently undertaking a propaedeutic course for psychotherapy

Since May 2026, Rosa Guevara has strengthened the AIHTA team in the areas of back-office operations and executive assistance. After completing a degree in Translation Studies at the University of Tampere, her professional journey took her from Berlin and Washington, D.C. to Vienna. The international experience gained along the way has shaped her structured approach to working across diverse cultural environments. Drawing on her multilingual skills and keen eye for detail, she supports the Executive Management and the wider team with administrative, organisational and coordination tasks.

Yui Hidaka has been working as a Senior Researcher at AIHTA since March 2024. She primarily works on projects in the fields of medical devices and digital health technology. Her current thematic research focus is on the assessment of digital health technologies and telehealth.

She holds a PhD in Health Sciences from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Her doctoral research focused on epidemiology, particularly occupational mental health.

Prior to joining AIHTA, she was a graduate research fellow with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2021 to 2022. In this role, she conducted a research project on the development and evaluation of a cognitive behavioural therapy-based digital intervention to prevent depression and anxiety among workers.

Viktoria Hofer has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since January 2022. She primarily works on public health projects and is currently on maternity leave.
After completing her master’s degree in public health nutrition at the University of Vienna, she joined the AIHTA.

Reinhard Jeindl has been working as a researcher at AIHTA since May 2020. His work primarily centres on rapid reviews, covering a broad clinical spectrum. Thematically, his research work spans innovative medical technologies (digital health, genomics) and public health (mental health of children and adolescents).
He holds a medical degree from the Medical University of Graz. Prior to joining AIHTA, he worked as a doctor in training at the Medical University of Vienna (Department of Neurology) and at Alexianer Berlin – Charité Academic Teaching Hospital (Department of Psychiatry).

Memberships:

• Austrian Society for Public Health (ÖGPH)
• European Public Health Association (EUPHA)
   

Eva Malikova joined AIHTA in 2024 as a researcher in the field of pharmacy. She currently works on the health technology assessment of medicinal products.

She completed her master's and PhD studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, where she started as a postdoc in 2016, doing pre-clinical research in pulmonary arterial hypertension. She has worked as a pre-clinical and clinical assessor at the State Institute for Drug Control in Slovakia for 8 years, assessing marketing authorisations of drugs. During this time she has also served as a member in the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products in the European Medicines Agency. Additionally, she has been an alternate in the Committee for Human Medicinal Products and a member of the Scientific Advice Working Party.

Memberships:

• HTAi – Health Technology International 
• HTAi Rare Diseases Interest Group (RDIG)

Tatiana Marschik has been a research associate at AIHTA since October 2025 and has additionally served as a People Lead since August 2026.

Her work focuses on the preparation of HTA reports on high-cost and specialized hospital medicines for the Austrian Appraisal Board and health economic analyses.

She holds degrees in Business Administration and Veterinary Medicine and completed her doctorate at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Before joining AIHTA, she worked for several years in research and teaching, with a focus on epidemiological analyses and the economic evaluation of animal health measures in collaboration with Austrian veterinary authorities.

Julia Mayer-Ferbas has been employed as a researcher at AIHTA since June 2020 and is currently working as a Senior Researcher primarily for the Rapid Reviews research area, covering various thematic fields. 

After completing her master's degree in Health and Nursing Sciences at the Medical University of Graz in 2010, she attended a postgraduate training at the Tropical and Public Health Institute of the University of Basel and part of the training as a general nurse at the LKH University Hospital Graz (2012-2013).

Julia previously worked at the LBI-HTA from 2013 to 2018 and, prior to joining LBI-HTA, at OMEGA - Transkulturelles Zentrum für psychische und physische Gesundheit und Integration in Graz.

Jule Pleyer has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since November 2024. She primarily works on public health projects. In September 2026, she became Lead of the Rapid Reviews research area. Prior to this, she had primarily worked on public health projects. Her current research focuses on public health regulations that promote healthy habits and lifestyles, such as social media bans, alcohol warnings, and medical check-ups. 

After completing a degree in Social Work, she obtained a Master of Science in Public Health from Bielefeld University in Germany. In addition, she earned a European Master of Public Health (EMPH) through her guest studies in Governance and Leadership in European Public Health at Maastricht University. Prior to joining AIHTA, she conducted research in environmental health sciences at Bielefeld University from 2022 to 2024.

Eleen Rothschedl began working at AIHTA as part of the “Horizon Scanning in Oncology” project in 2013. She has been working as a researcher at AIHTA since 2014, mainly in oncology, where she has been involved in prioritising new and emerging oncology drugs, conducting early assessments of new oncology medicines, and preparing monthly fact sheets to support decision-making by drug commissions and payers. Most recently, she has focused on preparing HTAs for the Austrian Appraisal Board as part of the AIHTA Appraisal Board Author Group.

After her studies at the Medical Universities of Graz and Vienna, she worked as a research associate at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Medical University of Vienna.

Romy Schönegger has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since February 2025. She primarily works on projects in the fields of public health and complex interventions, as well as medical devices and digital technologies. Her current thematic research focus is on the mental health of children and adolescents, care approaches for vulnerable groups, and telemedicine.

After completing a degree in Business and Social Sciences, she obtained a Master of Science in Public Health with distinction from Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg. In addition, she earned a postgraduate certificate in Global Health from the University of North Florida.
Prior to joining AIHTA, from 2023 to 2025, she worked in clinical trials at the University Clinic for Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapy.

Verena Steiner-Hofbauer has been working as a researcher at AIHTA since June 2026. Her work focuses on health economic evaluations of medical interventions and high-cost medicines within the HTA processes of the Austrian Appraisal Board. She also contributes to projects in the research area public health and complex interventions.

After completing her degree in Psychology, she obtained a Doctor of Medical Science (Mental Health and Behavioural Medicine) from the Medical University of Vienna. Prior to joining AIHTA, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and research group leader at Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences from 2022 to 2026. In addition, she serves as a university lecturer at the Medical University of Vienna.

Christoph Strohmaier heads the Health Economics and Health Services Research department and focuses primarily on health economic issues relating to the evaluation of health technologies. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Vienna. During his Master’s degree in Applied Economics at the University of Vienna, he specialised in political economy, public sector economics and quantitative methods. He has been with AIHTA since 2020; prior to that, he worked at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA).

Memberships:

• Austrian Society for Public Health (ÖGPH)

Andrea Titieni-Schuhmann has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since March 2026. She works primarily in the research area of rapid reviews on different health care topics.

After studying medicine in Vienna, she worked as a clinical trial associate in Houston (TX) and Boston (MS) (2012-2013). Thereafter she completed her specialist training in pediatrics at the University Hospital of Münster (D) (2014-2020). Since 2020 she works as a pediatrician in a hospital in Vienna. She studied public health at the Paracelsus University of Salzburg (2021-2023).

Konstantina Toumanidou joined AIHTA as a staff member in 2026, following two years of collaboration with the institute as a freelancer. As an Information Specialist, she is responsible for performing expert literature searches, while also managing the electronic resources. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Classical Philology and is currently working on her PhD in the same field at the University of Vienna. She has many years’ experience in the field of library science, having worked in the libraries of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Vienna and the American International School Vienna. Furthermore, she has specialised in the management of e-resources, open access and licensing at the Karl Landsteiner Private University for Health Sciences in Krems.

Sabine Geiger-Gritsch has been Deputy Director and Lead of the Research Area Drug Assessment at AIHTA since 2025. She previously worked at the former Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA), now AIHTA, from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2018 to 2019. Her research focuses on evidence-based pharmaceutical assessment, particularly the evaluation of innovative therapies in oncology and rare diseases, as well as the further development of HTA methodologies and the conduct of assessments under the EU HTA Regulation.

She holds a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Innsbruck, a PhD in Medical Sciences from the Medical University of Innsbruck, and a degree in Health Sciences from UMIT TIROL.

Before assuming her current position, she worked as a hospital pharmacist at Innsbruck University Hospital, specializing in clinical pharmacy. She also served as a researcher and project manager at UMIT TIROL and LBI-HTA/AIHTA and gained extensive experience in translating scientific evidence into healthcare decision-making through her positions at Tirol Kliniken and Wiener Gesundheitsverbund.

Memberships:

• Advisory Board on Oncology, Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection
• Advisory Board on Cancer Statistics/Cancer Registry, Statistics Austria
• Austrian Public Health Association (ÖGPH)
• Austrian Society of Epidemiology (OeGEp)
• German Network for Health Services Research (DNVF)
• German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS)
• German Network for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM Network)

Kerstin Skriner joined the AIHTA team in autumn 2025 and took over as head of the Finance/Human Resources department in 2026.

She has many years of professional experience working for international Big Four accounting firms as well as smaller tax advisory practices, where she gained experience in tax consulting, auditing and internal auditing at national and international level. Since 2022, she has also been successfully self-employed in the fields of management consulting and process management.

Sarah Wolf has been working as a researcher at AIHTA since December 2016 and has also served as people lead since October 2025. She has been working on projects in public health and medical devices. Her current thematic research focus is on high-tech medicine and health economics, especially for the Austrian appraisal board for high-priced and specialised hospital drugs.

After completing a degree in business, economics and social sciences with a focus on economics at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna, she obtained a postgraduate research master in health economics, policy and law with a focus on health economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam (2011-2016).

Memberships:

• ÖGPH Austrian Society for Public Health

Diana Szivakova joined AIHTA in March 2025. Her main research interests are pharmacoeconomics and pharmaceutical innovations. As part of the work conducted for the Austrian appraisal board for high-cost and specialized hospital medicines, her focus is on the economic aspects of new therapies. In addition, she currently leads the horizon scanning project.

She holds a master’s degree in health management from the Management Center Innsbruck and a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from the University of Bologna (IT). In addition, she spent a semester at the faculty of medicine at the University of Oslo (NO), specializing in economic evaluation in healthcare. Her master’s thesis focused on the attitudes of Slovakian women toward breast cancer screening modalities. Before joining AIHTA, she gained valuable experience during traineeships at the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (European Commission) and the National Institute for Value and Technologies in Healthcare (SK).

Memberships:

• BeNeLuxA initiative- Health Technology Assessment Domain Task Force 

Nicole Grössmann-Waniek has been working as a Senior Researcher at AIHTA (before LBI-HTA) since 2015. Her research focuses on evaluating the efficacy and safety of (new) oncological therapies to support evidence-based health policy decision-making. During her time at AIHTA, she has worked across a broad spectrum of HTA in the field of high-tech medicine. Most recently, she was involved in developing HTAs for the Austrian Appraisal Board for High-Cost and Specialised Hospital Medicines. Prior to that, she coordinated the Horizon Scanning in Oncology (HSO) programme.

In 2015, she completed her Master's degree in Behavioural, Neuro- and Cognitive Biology, specialising in neurobiology, at the University of Vienna. From October 2017 to May 2021, she was a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Economics at the Centre for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna. Her dissertation focused on the clinical benefit of oncological therapies in Europe. Prior to joining AIHTA, she worked as a research project assistant at the Department of Neurobiology, University of Vienna.

Platzhalter

Charlotte Habisohn is employed as a Junior Researcher at the AIHTA since 2026, where she works on projects involving artificial intelligence in healthcare and digital medical devices. Previously to this she worked at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Unit Bioresources.

After completing her Bachelor Studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna, she completed her Master´s degree in Bioinformatics at the University of Applied Sciences Vienna. 

Michaela Riegelnegg has been working as a Researcher at AIHTA since September 2023, following a prior internship. She primarily works on projects in the field of pharmaceuticals but is also involved in projects related to public health. Her current thematic research focus is on high priced specialised drugs and advanced therapy medicinal products in the hospital setting.

Before joining AIHTA she completed her bachelor's degree in physiotherapy and her master's degree in health management and public health at the University of Applied Sciences in Graz (FH Joanneum).

Memberships:

• ÖGPH –Austrian Society for Public Health
• HTAi – Health Technology Assessment International

Gregor Goetz leads the Research Area of Medical Devices and Digital Health Technologies at the Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA), where he has been based since 2020. Prior to this, he worked as a researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA, 2018–2020). He holds a Doctorate in Public Health (Dr.P.H.) from the Department of Health Care Management (MiG) at the Technische Universität Berlin, where he was also a visiting researcher in 2023–2024, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Newcastle in Australia (2016–2017), and a Master's Degree in Sociology with a focus on Health Sociology from the Johannes Kepler University in Linz (2013–2018).

Memberships:

• HTAi International
• EBM Network: Spokesperson for the Austria Section

Claudia Wild, born in 1960. Doctor of Philosophy (University of Vienna), habilitated in Social Medicine (Medical University of Graz). Established Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in Austria and subsequently served as Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for HTA (LBI-HTA) 2006–2020, and of the AIHTA from 2020 until February 2025. Since then (retirement), she has worked on a freelance basis in various EU and national roles: research evaluations (Horizon Europe, etc.) and on scientific committees (IHI, etc.). Since 2026, Head of the Healthcare Working Group at Transparency International Austria (TI-AT), member of the Committee on Scientific Requests at the Crisis and Security Office within the Federal Chancellery, etc. Numerous publications and extensive teaching experience. 

Doris Giess has been supporting AIHTA as an external Researcher since 2023, working across a broad range of HTA projects, with a particular focus on public health and health services research. Her project experience includes prevention and screening programmes, women’s health, healthcare organisation and delivery, artificial intelligence in healthcare, and HTA to support reimbursement decisions.

She holds a medical degree from the University of Graz and worked as a physician in the UK National Health Service before completing an MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.