Korinna Engeli, Executive Editor

Korinna Engeli is a program planner with a passion. After studying medicine, she gained experience in hospital operations as an intern before deciding on a career in the publishing industry. Since 2003, she has been responsible for the book program for various specialties at Thieme. We asked Ms. Engeli why she works as a physician at Thieme.

Ms. Engeli, you studied medicine. What was your motivation?

Korinna Engeli: I was familiar with the job description of a physician. My mother was an internist with her own practice. Even as a schoolgirl, I often worked in the registration area and in the laboratory. So it made sense for me to study medicine, become a physician myself and perhaps take over the practice later.

Were you already thinking about career alternatives during your studies?

Engeli: As my studies progressed, I did. I liked the content of my studies. But what didn't quite take hold was the enthusiasm for a particular specialty that I would have wanted to pursue further. Internal medicine, which I had always focused on, seemed so infinitely extensive. I could imagine less and less that I would actually be able to apply all this specialist knowledge on my own responsibility. Today, I think that I would have been able to cope well, because that's what happens to most young physicians after graduation. But at the time I had my doubts as to whether I would be up to the responsibility. After all, it is directly about the well-being of people. About life.

Towards the end of my studies, the question became more and more urgent as to what I could do with my knowledge instead. At first, I thought about counseling, conflict counseling for pregnant women or working in children's aid organizations, for example. But for that I would have needed a completely different, more psychological education. My medical studies would not have been of much use to me.

What happened next?

Engeli: Immediately after my third state examination, I attended a via medici conference, an information event for medical students to which Thieme had invited under the motto "Quo vadis Medizin? Among other things, it was about the question of what career path you can take as a physician - apart from the classical path - in other words, exactly the question that had been on my mind for a long time. The experts' recommendation at the time was quite clear: you should definitely complete the AiP (internship) in order to obtain your license to practice medicine - even if you might not want to work as a physician later on. And I followed this advice.

When I worked in a blood and plasma donation institute during my internship, it became clearer to me what I was interested in. I noticed that the information for the donors was not very clear and meaningful. I then took care of the preparation of the information. Both in terms of content and appearance. I really enjoyed it and thought: this is it - structuring medical content, presenting it in a way that is easy to understand and creating something of my own from it. That's when I first thought about medical journalism in the traditional sense and also about working in a publishing house.

Did you start working directly for Thieme after your AiP?

Engeli: No. I blindly applied for traineeships at various publishing houses. Since I wanted to stay in Berlin, I didn't focus on the big publishing houses at first. But at a small publishing house in Berlin, I spontaneously got a permanent position as project manager for the medical program. That was exciting and challenging, because I simply skipped the traineeship I had planned. But I already knew on the third day: This is it!

I came to Thieme two years later. When I applied, I still couldn't quite imagine leaving Berlin. I only went to the interview because I was interested in getting to know the publishing house that had accompanied me throughout my studies. But then the very first interview was so promising that I threw all my reservations overboard and moved to Stuttgart a few weeks later. And I really haven't regretted it for a single day!

In what capacity do you work at Thieme?

Engeli: I joined in 2003 as a project manager and then took over program planning six months later. Since then, I have been working with a team of project managers to develop the (book) program for physicians in the fields of anesthesiology, intensive care and emergency medicine, neurology, psychiatry/psychosomatics/psychotherapy, and dermatology/allergology. Then, in 2021, the specialty of pediatrics and adolescent medicine was added. For some years now, we have been working format-independently when creating content. That means we prepare the content from the outset so that it can be played out in different formats - as a classic book as well as digitally in databases and portals. 

I was on parental leave twice for a year and am currently working part-time, which also works very well due to my long experience and a super team. I am very happy that this is possible in a management position at Thieme.

What are your specific tasks?

Engeli: At the beginning, my focus was on getting to know the book program and networking - within the publishing house and especially within the clinical specialties. Today, I know the important contact persons in "my" specialist areas - many of them personally - and move in a close-knit network. This has given me a stable foundation on which to plan the relevant specialist book program.

One of my core tasks is to find out what knowledge physicians in training and experienced physicians need and to develop ideas and concepts from this. To do this, I not only research online, but also travel to the most important conferences and exchange ideas with our authors and key opinion leaders. Once we have agreed on a project together with the marketing and sales departments and the publishing management, I clarify the contractual framework conditions with the editors and authors and work out a coherent concept and a realistic schedule with them. In doing so, I always keep the greatest possible benefit for readers and users in mind. I accompany each project - up to 50 at a time - from the initial idea to publication and beyond. The actual implementation, however, is largely in the hands of my project managers, on whom I can rely completely.

You've been at Thieme for 15 years now, planning book after book. Doesn't that get monotonous in the long run?

Engeli: Not at all. Boredom never sets in. Not only because I work with so many different experts and medical knowledge is always evolving, but above all because the demands on information services are changing rapidly. More and more specialist information is being requested digitally. This is leading to a completely new way of thinking about book production.

Today, we create content and, even at the planning stage, we keep in mind that this will not primarily result in a book - in the classic print format and as an e-book - but that distribution via other channels is becoming increasingly important. For example, the medical knowledge portal eRef, in which specialist information is bundled according to medical subject matter, is fed from our books and specialist journals. This requires a significantly different structuring and also standardization of the content. These changes are exciting, but also entail a greater communicative effort vis-à-vis the editors and authors. This is because each author first sees his or her topic and how he or she can best structure it and divide it into chapters. My job is to explain to the authors how the content needs to be structured so that we can also process it digitally in the best possible way.

Since 2016, we have been working on a new series across all departments, which started at the end of 2018 with the first title. In the meantime, 20 works have been published. Under the series title "Reference," a wide variety of clinical pictures and methods are presented across all specialties in a completely uniform structure. In this way, we have created standardized basic content for the eRef, which enables us to present really every topic uniformly and in optimal depth from the perspective of different specialties. The content will also appear in book format. However, during the conception phase, the focus was already on its use within the framework of eRef.

To what extent is your medical degree helpful in this?

Engeli: Medical expertise is a great advantage in being able to assess whether a topic or content is relevant. I have a lot of specific knowledge, can classify topics and technical terms, quickly grasp correlations and have a concrete idea of what a physicians's work looks like in the practice or on the ward. This helps me not only with content planning, but also when it comes to the question of how physicians acquire knowledge or which information is relevant and helpful at which point in the treatment process. As a physician at Thieme, I use my knowledge to help physicians in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices to provide more certainty for the best possible patient care with reliable specialist information directly at the workplace.

Do you miss the clinic?

Engeli: Not for a day! Maintaining a network, developing ideas, structuring, organizing, coordinating, and keeping an eye on time management and profitability - that's exactly my thing.

I'm in contact with so many people in the publishing house and outside and maintain a lively exchange. When I combine the expertise of our specialist authors with my knowledge as a publishing expert, this results in very good offers that support physicians in their daily demanding work. That inspires me. Every day!

The interview was conducted by Carola Schindler