Wolfgang Schmidt was born in Berlin, Germany, where he also received his medical education, holding degrees in internal medicine, emergency medicine, and rheumatology. He is a consultant
rheumatologist at the Medical Center for Rheumatology in Berlin-Buch at the Immanuel Krankenhaus Berlin where he served as chief senior physician, rheumatology fellowship director, and deputy director. His scientific work centers around musculoskeletal ultrasound and imaging in vasculitis. In 2002, he completed habilitation and became a professor of Charité University Medicine in Berlin in 2010. He has authored over 250 publications in the field with an h-index of 75. Between 1999 and 2009 he conducted ultrasound workshops at annual ACR meetings. He is teaching at ultrasound courses worldwide and organized the EULAR ultrasound courses in 2002, 2004 and 2012. He initiated the Eular Ultrasound Trainer Courses in 2012. Wolfgang Schmidt holds EFSUMB level 3 and EULAR level 2 for musculoskeletal ultrasound, which represent the highest levels. He was first to describe the ultrasound halo sign in giant cell arteritis (GCA) in 1995. In the late 1990s, he introduced the first GCA ultrasound fast-track clinic in Berlin-Buch, which currently attends to 100 patients annually with newly diagnosed GCA. He is convening the EULAR recommendations on imaging in large vessel vasculitis (LVV) and leads the OMERACT group on ultrasound in LVV.
