[FG] Siegemund Martin

National retrospective registry study based on the SGI Minimal Dataset (MDSi) describing the incidence, injury pattern, ICU resource utilisation and outcomes of adult polytrauma and traumatic brain injury patients (AIS head ≥ 3) admitted to Swiss ICUs between 2005 and 2024. Outcomes include nursing workload (NEMS), ventilation days, ICU-based surgical interventions, ICU and hospital length of stay and ICU mortality. Pre-specified hypotheses examine the impact of the 2011 Highly Specialised Medicine (HSM) centralisation of trauma care, the 2012 introduction of SwissDRG flat-rate reimbursement and the COVID-19 pandemic on resource use, injury patterns and outcomes.

The research project aims to develop clinical decision support tools integrating established diagnostic variables and machine learning (ML) models for rapid diagnosis of acute life-threatening cardiovascular conditions in emergency department (ED) patients with chest pain or dyspnea with the ultimate goal of Improved diagnostic accuracy, faster patient management, and reduced medical errors.

This is a prospective two-centre observational study of patients developing new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) after cardiac surgery. The primary outcome is the description of NOAF-maintaining structures within the atria. Key secondary outcomes include overall mortality, intensive care unit length of stay, hospital-ventilator-free days, and proportion of persistent NOAF. In NOAF patients, the non-invasive electrophysiological mapping will be conducted using a 252-electrode electrocardiogram vest. After mapping, a low-dose computed tomography scan of the chest will be performed to integrate the electrophysiological mapping results into a 3D picture of the heart. The study will include approximately 570 patients, of whom 30% (n = 170) are expected to develop NOAF. A sample size calculation revealed that 157 NOAF patients are necessary for assessing the primary outcome. Patients will be tracked for a total of 5 years.