After studying medicine at the Georg August University in Göttingen and completing his residency at the Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster, Dr Rahmel worked as a senior physician in the Department of Cardiac Surgery and the Department of Cardiology at the University Hospital in Leipzig until 2005. From 2005-2014, he was Medical Director at Eurotransplant International Foundation in the Netherlands. He has been Medical Director of the German Organ Transplant Foundation since April 2014.