Professor Eberhard Merz was born in 1949. He graduated M.D. in 1976 at the Christian Albrechts-University of Kiel. Since 1979 he has been working at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz. After receiving has qualification as a university lecturer in 1988 he became senior physician and head of the Center for diagnostic ultrasound and prenatal therapy at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Mainz. He is now retired as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Mainz.
He graduated in 1976 with an MD degree at the University of Kiel, Germany and Doctorate in medicine (PhD) 1n1977. In 1985 he became Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology. in 1988 he was Head of Department for ultrasound diagnosis and fetal therapy, University of Mainz, Germany. In1995, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Mainz. He was Professor and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital Nordwest, Frankfurt/Main, Germany (Affiliated teaching hospital of Johann Goethe University of Frankfurt/M.), He was Head of Center for Ultrasound and Prenatal Medicine and also Head of the IVF unit at Hospital Nordwest, Frankfurt/Main. Professor Merz has More than 300 peer review articles, several book chapters and 7 ultrasound books. He has published extensively on fetal biometry, the diagnosis of fetal malformation and diagnostic procedures such as cordocentesis.
Merz also had extensive operative experience in gynecologic oncology but his main fields of subspecialization had soon settled into perinatal medicine, ultrasonography and prenatal therapy.
Since the late 1980s Merz had embarked on the development and use of 3-dimensional sonography, particularly in collaboration with KretzTchnik®, Austria, in the evaluation of the fetus. He is author and co-author of over 100 scientific papers of which more than 30 were concerned with the use of 3-D ultrasound. In 1995, Merz and his co-workers demonstrated very importantly the usefulness of multiplanar orthogonal imaging as compared to surface rendering and plain 2-D imaging in the diagnosis and confirmation of fetal surface anomalies such as cleft lips. He and his co-workers reported a large series of over 600 cases of fetal diagnosis (as from 1989) using 3-D ultrasound. In 1997, his team reported on the diagnosis of facial anomalies using trans-vaginal 3-D scans. The second book by Merz in 2000: "3-D Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology" was a major contribution to the literature in his area.
Merz hosted the First World Congress on 3-D Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Mainz in 1997. Many important teething issues surrounding the new practice of 3-D sonography were discussed. Among other committee positions, Merz is currently executive board memeber of the ISUOG and chairs its 3-D Focus group. He is also assessor of the DEGUM council and had more recently been engaged in the setting up of DEGUM standards in prenatal level II ultrasound diagnosis at 18-22 weeks.