MD PhD Alain Amstutz

Alain Amstutz is an MD PhD focusing on innovative trial designs, trial evidence synthesis methods, and target trial emulations. He is currently a senior research associate in Bristol UK (Electronic Health Records Group, University of Bristol), Oslo Norway (Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, OCBE) and Basel Switzerland (Division of Clinical Epidemiology). 

During his MD-PhD in Lesotho (2017–2021), he led four randomized trials addressing key HIV service delivery questions: The HOSENG trial demonstrated that secondary HIV self-test distribution, managed by trained lay community health workers (CHWs), substantially increased household testing coverage and was cost-effectiveness, directly influencing WHO guidelines and CDC’s best-evidence toolbox. The VIBRA trial showed that community-based ART refills by CHWs were comparable to clinic refills. The SESOTHO trial provided evidence for lowering the viral load threshold for treatment failure, informing both national and WHO guidelines. The PEBRA trial, co-created with youth living HIV, tested a peer educator mHealth model, achieving high engagement and catalyzing a South–South collaboration with Zambia.

As a postdoc, he continued and broadened his research into several streams:

(1) establishing a large population-based cohort study in Lesotho to investigate chronic diseases (esp. diabetes, hypertension) and studying CHW-based models of care – similar to HOSENG and VIBRA – in embedded trials (ComBaCaL, co-Principal Investigator);

(2) investigating a pragmatic smoking cessation intervention, embedded in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (RETUNE trial, co-Principal Investigator);

(3) advancing the Trials-within-Cohorts (TwiCs) design and implementing it in Lesotho (ComBaCaL) and Switzerland (RETUNE);

(4) leading global Individual Participant Data Meta-Analyses (IPDMAs) on remdesivir and JAK inhibitors for COVID-19 (>20 trial teams), informing NICE guidelines;

(5) pioneering citizen science approaches while exploring hair salons as an alternative space to promote HIV and sexual health prevention in Lesotho;

(6) strengthening patient and public involvement in HIV research; and

(7) applying causal inference and the target trial emulation framework to large electronic health records through the OpenSAFELY platform, evaluating COVID-19 therapeutics.

He is part of the methods/stats team of EU-RESPONSE (European platform trial for COVID-19 therapeutics), PROACT (European adaptive platform trial for antivirals for respiratory tract infections), and MPX-RESPONSE (European Mpox MOSAIC cohort and platform trial for Mpox therapeutics), supporting the design and analysis of these adaptive platform trials, and lead methodological work around prospective meta-analyses and complementing the trials with target trial emulations.

He is a member of the Innovation Hub at the Swiss HIV Cohort Study and part of the global TwiCs network.

Up to today, he has acquired substantial research funding as (Co-)Principal Investigator (>7 million USD) and published >100 publications (>35 as first or last author) in peer-reviewed, high-impact journals (Lancet Resp Med, Lancet HIV, PLOS Med, CID, JIAS, PLOS GPH/Med, among others). He serves as Associate Editor at the BMC Trials. He fluently speaks German, English, French and Italian and is constantly working on his Sesotho. A recent portrait.