Ulrike Bauer studied human medicine at the Humboldt University of Berlin. After finishing her doctorate on echocardiography in congenital heart disease, she was a resident for internal medicine at the county hospital in Chemnitz, after which she transferred to the Institute for Cardiovascular Diagnostics at the Charité Berlin. From there she transferred to the department of pediatric cardiology at the German Heart Center, Berlin (Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin). Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Peter E. Lange, Ulrike Bauer started setting up a nationwide register for congenital heart disease. The initiative by Prof. Dr. Peter E. Lange lead to the founding of the association of the National Register for Congenital Heart Defects. It was jointly supported by the board of trustees of Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin and the cardiac societies, as well as by parent and patient associations. The same year was also the kick-off for creating the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects, which could took place thanks to government grants. Ulrike Bauer is a member of the German Society of Paediatric Cardiology (DGK), the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the German Cardiac Society (DGK) and the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC).

After graduating and earning his doctorate at the Hannover Medical School, Hashim Abdul-Khaliq was initially based at the department of neonatology of the pediatric clinic at Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum Berlin for three years. After that, he worked with the Department of Congenital Heart Disease – Pediatric Cardiology at Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin for twelve years. For the past six years, he has been a senior physician there. After qualifying as a professor at the Humboldt-Universität (Berlin), he accepted a call to the Klinik für Kinderkardiologie at the Saarland University Hospital. Hashim Abdul-Khaliq is a member of the German Society of Paediatric Cardiology (DGPK), the German Cardiac Society (DGK) and the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC). The pediatric cardiologist additionally advises the patient associations as a member of the medical-scientific board of Marfan Hilfe (Deutschland) e. V., as well as of the advisory board of the Bundesverband Herzkranke Kinder e. V. Hashim Abdul-Khaliq is a member and the Chair of the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects Executive Board. He also acts as a member of the research network’s Steering Committee.