General Internal Medicine especially Respiratory Medicine
Area of Research
Our main areas of interest and expertise relate to respiratory physiology and obstructive lung diseases, in particular asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our clinical research also encompasses clinical implications of airway hyperresponsiveness. The approach of our research is multidisciplinary and so are the qualifications and areas of expertise of our team members. We have and encourage close collaboration between general internists, respiratory physicians, clinical investigators, health scientists, public health specialists as well as pharmaceutical scientists and experts in the field of family medicine. Our research group has focused on patient-centered care and translational research with the aim to close the gap between academic research and daily clinical practice. The concept behind this is that provision of optimal treatment is not only about short-term improvement in patients’ clinical conditions and quality of life, but also about reducing long-term side-effects of treatments to a minimum. As such, our goal is to improve diagnostic accuracy as well as to deliver optimized healthcare to patients with cardiopulmonary diseases.
Our research group leads the first and largest COPD cohort in Switzerland as well as the Swiss Severe Asthma Registry. In the COPD cohort, general practitioners and respiratory physicians play a key role, because they enter data on their patients’ routine examinations anonymously into a centralized electronic database. We are particularly interested in evaluating physicians’ adherence to guidelines as well as prediction and early diagnosis of COPD-exacerbations. With the Swiss Severe Asthma Registry, we are focusing on factors associated with asthma control. More than 400 patients with severe asthma have been included. The use of biologicals clearly show an improvement in asthma control and reduction of asthma exacerbations.
Further, we are investigating - retrospectively as well as in randomized clinical trials - aspects of "Smarter Medicine”, such as management of general internal medical conditions in patients with chronic lung diseases (for example diabetes) focusing especially physicians’ adherence to national and international guidelines and factors influencing length of stay, rehospitalisation and mortality.
National Collaborations
• Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Zeller, University Center for Family Medicine, Basel
• Prof. Dr. med. Maria Wertli Kantonsspital Baden
• Prof. Dr. med. Michael Brändle, Kantonsspital St. Gallen
• Prof. Dr. med. Sabina Hunziker Schütz, MPH, University Hospital Basel
• Prof. Dr. med. Drahomir Aujesky, Inselspital Bern
• Prof. Dr. med. Mirjam Christ-Crain, University Hospital Basel
Konsortium im Rahmen des Swiss Severe Asthma Registry
• Inselspital Bern (Dr. med. Nikolay Pavlov)
• Kantonsspital St. Gallen (Dr. med. Lukas Kern)
• Universitätsspital Zürich (Prof. Dr. med. Christian Clarenbach)
• Kantonsspital Graubünden (PD Dr.med. Tsogyal Latshang/ Dr. med. Thomas Rothe)
• EOC Lugano ( Dr. med. Pietro Gianella)
• HVS Sion (Prof. Dr. med. Pierre Olivier Bridevaux)
• HUG Genève (Dr. med. Florian Charbonnier)
• CHUV Lausanne (Prof. Dr. med. Christophe von Garnier)
• RhNE Neuchâtel (Prof. Dr. med. Jean-Marc Fellrath)
International Collaborations
• SHARP- Severe Heterogeneous Asthma Research collaboration
• Dr. Prashant Chhajed, Mumbai, India
• Dr. John Brannan, Newcastle, Australia
• Dr. Herbert Bachler, Tiroler Gesellschaft für Allgemeinmedizin, Austria
