More prizes for our PhD students!

14.10.2015

In the last few weeks, four PhD students working at the ISPM Bern were awarded prizes for their abstracts at conferences or for their Master thesis. Congratulations!

SSPH+ PhD Programme Student Abstract Award 2015, 1st prize, Swiss Public Health Conference, September 17 – 18, Geneva:

Matthias Schindler: Cause-specific late-mortality in 5-year survivors of childhood cancer in Switzerland - a population based study.
Matthias's project describes cause specific mortality in a population based cohort of childhood cancer survivors in Switzerland compared to the Swiss general population. The study uses data from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry linked to routine mortality data. The study is founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Bridge Foundation. The study started in August 2012 and should have the final results by the end of 2015.

SSPH+ PhD Programme Student Abstract Award 2015, 2nd prize, Swiss Public Health Conference, September 17 – 18, Geneva

Annette Weiss: Hearing impairment in Swiss childhood cancer long-term survivors.
Annette`s project determines the prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus in Swiss childhood cancer long-term survivors compared to siblings by using data from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivors Study. The study confirms chemotherapy with platinum compounds and radiation to ear as risk factors for hearing loss after childhood cancer. The Swiss Cancer League and the European Union funded this project, which started in October 2014.

Student Abstract Award 2015, 1st prize, Evolutionary Medicine Conference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Health and Disease, July 30 – August 1, Zürich:

Stephanie Fingerhuth: Rates of antibiotic resistance evolution in gonorrhoea.
Stephanie’s project uses mathematical modelling to optimize treatment strategies to slow down antibiotic resistance spread in the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea. Her study showed that an increased rate of treatment leads to an increased selective advantage for resistant gonorrhoea strains and thus leads to faster spread of resistance. The study is part of RADAR-GO, an interdisciplinary project that aims to develop a rapid molecular test for the diagnosis of antibiotic resistance in gonorrhoea. It is funded by SwissTransMed.

Young scientist sponsorship prize 2015 for “older students” of the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS):

Anita Feller won the sponsorship for her Master thesis "Avoidable mortality for causes amenable to health care in Switzerland", carried out at the Institute for Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Anita’s thesis investigated the association of socioeconomic inequalities and avoidable mortality in Switzerland and Swiss trends in avoidable mortality in comparison with 16 other high income countries. The project detected substantial socioeconomic inequalities in avoidable mortality in Switzerland but did not find evidence that these findings are related to inequalities in medical use or the quality of medical care. The results of the international comparison suggest high quality of medical care in Switzerland.