Department of Biomedical Engineering

Anatomy education faces persistent challenges in conveying complex three-dimensional structures and spatial relationships using traditional two-dimensional materials. While current methods at the University of Basel integrate theoretical lectures, dissection courses, and interactive software, students often struggle to transfer abstract anatomical knowledge into practical skills—especially when identifying structures during dissection or clinical application. This gap between simplified representations and real anatomical complexity underscores a pressing need for innovative teaching tools that enhance spatial understanding and support practical learning.

To address this challenge, the proposed project introduces Mixed Reality (MR) into the anatomy curriculum for medical and dental students. By integrating the Specto software—developed at the University of Basel—with MR headsets, the system overlays patient-specific CT data and 3D reconstructions directly onto anatomical donors in real space. Students will be able to visualize and interact with layered anatomical structures during dissection, take virtual notes, and receive real-time feedback from instructors. This approach is expected to improve spatial comprehension, modernize teaching, and better prepare students for a technologically evolving medical landscape.

Imported from Grants Tool 4707568

RemEDy (Reducing Mistriage in Emergency Departments)

The demand for emergency care varies and can change rapidly. Emergency Department (ED) performance depends on the number of patients who present, and their flow through the ED to their safest and most appropriate disposition (admission to tertiary care, referral to one of the partnering hospitals, or discharge). Effective triage is critical for the safe management of patients presenting to the ED, ensuring the right patient receives the right care at the right time in the right place with the right resources. Despite the recognized importance of accurate triage of emergency department patients, approximately 20% to 30% experience incorrect triage level assignment, known as mistriage. Mistriage might be associated with adverse health outcomes. To enhance triage accuracy, it is crucial to understand the causes of mistriage and how they are associated with the characteristics of patients, triage clinicians, and ED metrics. A comprehensive understanding of mistriage will allow for the identification of potential areas for improvement, leading to the development of measures to avoid it. RemEDy (Reducing Mistriage in Emergency Departments) will identify and analyze mistriage in a real-time triage setting in 7 ED’s in German-speaking Switzerland, comparing routine triage procedures with expert triage simultaneously, and develop and evaluate an AI model that can potentially assist with triage decisions, aiming to detect patients who should not wait early. Based on the results, we will develop a learning module for triage clinicians and assess its effectiveness in reducing mistriage. This could result in enhanced accuracy in triage code assignment, thereby reducing mistriage and its associated consequences.

Hintergrund: Die zellfreie DNA (cfDNA) ist ein pro-inflammatorischer und pro-thrombotischer Mediator im akuten ischämischem Hirnschlag. CfDNA wird von sterbenden Gehirnzellen freigesetzt und ist auch wichtiger ein Bestandteil von „neutrophil extracellular traps“ (NETs) und damit in die Immunothrombose involviert. Die genaue Herkunft von cfDNA und ihre Bedeutung für die Ätiologie und Therapie des Hirnschlags sind jedoch unklar.

Ziel: Die CANTO-Studie untersucht cfDNA im akuten Stadium des Hirnschlags durch kombinierte Blut- und Thrombusanalysen. Ziel ist es, cfDNA in verschiedenen Schlaganfallätiologien sowie in Bezug auf sekundäre Embolien und die Reperfusionswahrscheinlichkeit zu analysieren.

Methodik: In einer prospektiven Kohortenstudie werden Patienten mit akutem ischämischem Hirnschlag untersucht, die einer mechanischen Thrombektomie unterzogen werden. Blutproben werden vor dem Eingriff entnommen, Thromben schockgefroren und mittels Nanopore-Sequenzierung analysiert. Ein 90-Tage-Follow-up wird durchgeführt.

Bedeutung: CANTO wird neue Erkenntnisse zur Rolle von cfDNA im Hirnschlag liefern und damit potentiell neue diagnostische und therapeutische Ansätze ermöglichen.