He is director of the department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Saarland University Medical Center in Homburg/Saar, Germany.

[1] In 1995, he assumed as interim director the leadership of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular at the Saarland University Medical Center in Homburg/Saar.

[2] He has assumed different obligations in academic committees, and he has initiated many research projects dealing with cardiac and thoracic surgical challenges.

[3] The initial research activities of Hans-Joachim Schäfers focused on different clinical problems of heart and lung transplantation.

During his fellowship at the University of Toronto (grant of the German Research Council) he investigated the problem of bronchial complications after lung transplantation.