Of people and pixels

When Dr. Anna Junga talks about her work, it’s all about medical teaching and research and how the two mesh together. Junga, 30, is one of a generation of young scientists who are taking medical training at the University of Münster into the future. Using virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence and digital teaching methods are a matter of course for her. But there is one thing she makes clear: “No digital tool can, or should, be any substitute for direct contact with patients.”

Anna Junga grew up in Recklinghausen and she was the first in her family to take her Abitur. During her time at school she was already fascinated by natural sciences and by the idea of becoming a doctor one day. However, she was sceptical – because the chances of gaining a place to study medicine in Münster were small. But in 2014 she was awarded a place – which she saw as being a “great privilege”. She studied human medicine, completed a PhD and became involved in the Institute of Medical Education. As an assistant and member of the “MeDocs” initiative, she recognised the extent to which research and teaching are interlinked. This experience laid the foundations for her work today. Since late 2020 she has been working there as a lecturer and researcher, and today she heads the “Digital Teaching Methods” department. In other words, at an early stage in her career she took on a key role in innovative training.

In August 2025, together with Pascal Kockwelp, Prof. Markus Holling, Prof. Benjamin Risse and Prof. Bernhard Marschall, she was awarded a special prize by the Ulrich Bernath Foundation for Research in Open and Distance Learning – for a project particularly close to her heart: VR-assisted competence
training for brain death diagnostics. The team developed a simulation which enables students to practice this procedure in realistic situations. “With the aid of the VR headset,” Junga explains, “students immerse themselves in an intensive-care ward or an A&E department. They encounter virtual patients and examine, question and treat them. In this way, they learn to make their own decisions and do so in a safe, realistic and risk-free environment.” A short while later there followed another prize for teachers from the Society for Medical Education. Anna Junga is especially proud of this award as it honours personalities and their work.

The prizes and awards are not important for her, though. What motivates her is the teaching itself. “A lot of research questions arise straight from teaching,” she says. “We can try out new insights directly in teaching projects.” What is important to her is training, which comprises three elements: contact with patients; practical exercises with so-called simulated patients; and a targeted use of VR
and artificial intelligence.

Just how important practical work is to her can be seen outside the university environment: in addition to her work in the faculty, Anna Junga works as a urologist in a surgery in the town of Herten. This direct contact with patients is, for her, a valuable counterbalance to her other work, as well as being a constant reminder of “why we’re doing all this”. She confesses with a smile that work is often a hobby for her. In the evening she often likes to sit at her desk and write specialist articles. “That may make me sound like a workaholic, but it’s fun to create something new with other  people,” she says. But there are other sides to Anna Junga: she likes knitting and crochet work and also likes renovating. She used to have a Game Boy, but today she is at home in the gaming scene and visits digital exhibitions.

Her motto in life is: “I simply try things out. If they work, all the better. And if not, at least I tried.” This approach, coupled with curiosity and perseverance, is a central theme in her career. She is proud of the fact that she studied and did her PhD at the University of Münster and now teaches and researches here. She wants to begin with her habilitation soon. She shows that modern medicine is more than high-tech and algorithms: it lives from people who are passionate about it.

Author: Dr. Kathrin Kottke

This article is from the brochure "Twelve months, twelve people", published in March 2026.

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