Alain Amstutz, MD PhD is a trialist / methodologist / clinical epidemiologist, working at the interface of infectious diseases (esp. HIV and respiratory viruses) and non-communicable diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases risk factors). His vision is to integrate three powerful methods of modern causal inference (embedded pragmatic trials, real-time prospective evidence synthesis, and target trial emulations from routine data) into a single, faster evidence ecosystem, complemented by mixed-methods and citizen-science work.

He is currently a senior researcher in Basel (Division of Clinical Epidemiology) and an honorary research associate in Bristol (Electronic Health Records Group, University of Bristol), and Oslo (Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, OCBE), and collaborates across numerous interdisciplinary networks in Europe and Southern Africa.

His MD-PhD work in Lesotho produced four large HIV service-delivery trials that informed WHO and CDC guidance. As a postdoc he refined the Trials-within-Cohorts (TwiCs) trial design, led COVID-19 IPD meta-analyses that shaped WHO and NICE recommendations, pioneered citizen science approaches to explore hair salons as an alternative space to promote HIV and sexual health prevention in Lesotho, established a large population-based cohort study in Lesotho to investigate non-communicable diseases and evaluate Community Health Worker-led models of care (ComBaCaL, co-Principal Investigator), and applied target trial emulation across >58 million NHS records via OpenSAFELY.

He currently (co-)leads several trials in Switzerland (TwiCs in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study such as RETUNE trial) and Lesotho (ComBaCaL), and provides methodological support for trials in Zambia, Zanzibar, Denmark and the UK. He coordinates two large prospective IPD meta-analyses for the BMJ Rapid Recommendations across global trial teams, and oversees methods work packages in the European platform trial consortia EU-RESPONSE, PROACT, and MPX-RESPONSE. He has secured >10 million USD as (Co-)Principal Investigator, published >110 papers (>40 as first or last author; Nature Medicine, Lancet HIV, PLOS Medicine, among others), is a member of the Innovation Hub at the Swiss HIV Cohort Study and part of the global TwiCs network, serves as Associate Editor at BMC Trials, and is fluent in German, English, French and Italian. A recent portrait published by the University of Basel.

Dr. med., Dr sc. med. Alain Amstutz

Profiles & Affiliations

Department of Clinical Research

Faculty of Medicine > Forschung > Department of Clinical Research > [FG] Briel Matthias | Member of Professorship / Research Group

Faculty of Medicine >
Forschung >
Department of Clinical Research >
[FG] Briel Matthias | Member of Professorship / Research Group