Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics
The Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics hosts a range of projects in diverse areas of clinical epidemiology and practice. The Division conducts randomised controlled trials, cohort and case-control studies and performs meta-analyses, meta-epidemiological research and mathematical modelling. Many of the conducted projects are interdisciplinary and both contribute to and benefit from strong national and international collaborations. The Division is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Peter Jüni, who also leads CTU Bern, the University Hospital’s clinical trials unit.
The Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis group led by Karin Huwiler and Sven Trelle performs systematic reviews and meta-analyses mainly in the fields of infectious diseases, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health. A major methodological focus of the group is on network meta-analysis and on meta-epidemiological studies. The Clinical Epidemiology research group led by Peter Jüni cuts across clinical disciplines and contributes to clinical studies in collaboration with CTU Bern. In addition, the group is coordinating and editing infomed screen, a bimonthly publication abstracting high quality research from key journals of relevance to clinical practice.
The Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes research group, led by Christoph Stettler has close links with the Division of Invasive Cardiology of the University Hospital Bern. Collaborative projects include comparisons of the safety and effectiveness of different types of stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease in network meta-analyses and randomised trials such as the SIRTAX trial. Prognostic studies in diabetes are another major focus of the group. The work of the musculoskeletal research group led by Stephan Reichenbach has a focus on evaluating the effectiveness and safety of interventions used for osteoarthritis in standard and network meta-analyses funded by the National Research Programme 53. The group is also involved in population-based cohort studies in Switzerland and England and in randomised controlled trials, such as SVISCOT.
The Child and Adolescent Health research group led by Claudia Kühni is involved in prognostic studies, specifically about wheezing disorders in preschool children. The Division hosts the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry, which provides data for many research projects in close collaboration with the Swiss Paediatric Oncology Group. The Sexual and Reproductive Health research group, led by Nicola Low performs a wide range of studies, including a World Health Organization (WHO) project on sexuality and vaginal practices, a survey of Chlamydia control activities in the European Union and a project on the integration of sexual and reproductive health services. This group has expertise in mathematical modelling and has close links with the International Health and Infectious Diseases and Screening research groups.
