Dr. Frédérique Chammartin

The goal of the ESTIMATE project is to improve the quality of work disability evaluations used in disability benefit decisions. This will be achieved by building a large, representative database of residual work capacity ratings and developing a Bayesian hierarchical model to produce more accurate and reliable estimates. A dataset published in 2021 is currently being re-analyzed using Bayesian methods to demonstrate the advantages of Bayesian hierarchical modeling. This approach allows for quantification of uncertainty in residual work capacity estimates and applies shrinkage toward a common mean by enabling groups to share information through hyperpriors.

This project develops and enhances G-methods to improve causal inference in clinical research by combining longitudinal data with advanced statistical techniques, addressing time-varying treatments, confounders, and spatial correlations.

LoDoCA is a prospective cohort study among children and adolescents with HIV in Lesotho, southern Africa who changed from an antiretroviral therapy regimen containing lopinavir to a regimen containing dolutegravir. The study compares treatment satisfaction and previously reported adverse effects of either drug, including neuropsychiatric (sleep, depression) and gastrointestinal outcomes. Sleep is a key focus, as sleep disturbance has previously been reported as an adverse effect of dolutegravir among adults. Thus, sleep is measured by actigraphy (movement-sensing devices worn by participants around their wrist from around bedtime to morning) in addition to questionnaires.

This multicenter randomized controlled trial embedded in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study and the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study provides crucial information about the efficacy and safety of the mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.  

Community-based Chronic Care Lesotho is a five-year implementation research project addressing chronic disease care in remote villages in rural Lesotho. In a cohort of over 100 villages we assess through cluster-randomized trials within cohorts (TwiCs) different innovative models where ehealth assisted lay community health workers provide care for hypertension, diabetes and HIV.

Maps of geographical patterns and trends of incidence, mortality and management of gender-related cancers (i.e. breast, ovarian, cervix and uterus in women and prostate and testis in men) as well as estimates of the future disease burden at different regional scales is important for the design, implementation and evaluation of cancer programs. Over the last fifteen years, Bayesian spatio-temporal models are the state of art methodology in disease mapping, however they have not yet been applied to Swiss cancer data.

The International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Southern Africa collaboration (IeDEA-SA) undertakes research to improve the long-term delivery of HIV care and ART services. The combined database includes individual-level data on more than 640,000 adults and children on ART in 17 large collaborating cohorts in Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

The MeSH Consortium develop, test and implement innovative and efficient methods for routine HIV measurement and surveillance.

The aim of the MET-REPAIR study is to address the question: “Are METs estimated by questionnaire associated with perioperative major adverse cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality in patients undergoing elevated-risk, noncardiac surgery?”