News 2021

ISPM PhD candidate will represent ISPM at the Expo-Dubai in 2022

Magda Gamba, PhD student in the Lifestyle and behavior group at the Institute of Social and preventive medicine (ISPM), will be representing ISPM and the University of Bern at the Swiss Pavilion in the Expo-Dubai 2020 at the end of coming January after winning the 2021 SSPH+ ScienceFlashTalk Award together with Ogonna Nwankwo, PhD student at the Swiss TPH.

Dangers of silent atrial fibrillation in diabetes

In a major study, a research group at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital and the University of Bern investigated atrial fibrillation (AF) in people with andwithout diabetes. Patients with diabetes were found to have significantly more frequent, silent (asymptomatic) atrial fibrillation.

Two ISPM Professors among the list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021

Matthias Egger and Georgia Salanti from ISPM are, again, among the world's most cited researchers in 2021. Their publication records are the result of collaborative efforts with international and national scientists, and have received a lot of attention from the scientific community.

IeDEA-SA has started its 16th year

Matthias Egger, his team and international partners have received another five years of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; United States). The nearly 16 million USD award ensures the continuation of the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Southern Africa (IeDEA-SA) collaboration through 2026.

Prestigious NIH-grant for ISPM research group

Building upon his collaborative work with the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA), Matthias Egger has again been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; United States). With a grant of nearly 2.5 million USD over the next three years, this NIH award will support research about HIV drug resistance.

STROBE-MR: Reporting guidelines for Mendelian randomization studies

An international team of researchers and experts, including Veronika Whitesell Skrivankova and Matthias Egger from ISPM, developed new reporting guidelines for observational studies using Mendelian randomization. The STROBE-MR guidelines were published in both JAMA and BMJ today.

Psychiatric patients may be vulnerable to ambient temperatures - study says

A new study co-led by researchers of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and the University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University of Bern has found that ambient temperature could influence the risk of hospitalizations due to mental disorders even in countries with a temperate climate like Switzerland.

International Cancer Survivor Symposium 2022

The international Cancer Survivor Symposium will take place February 3rd 2022 in Bern, led by among others Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Kuehni.

Participatory research – Living with an undiagnosed rare disease

In his autobiography «husten verboten» (coughing prohibited), Hansruedi Silberschmidt describes his life as a child and young adult with an undiagnosed disease and his path of suffering until he was finally diagnosed with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) at the age of 39.

ISPM hosts symposium to commemorate 50 years featuring international public health experts

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) at the University of Bern Commemorates 50 Years with a symposium. The symposium features past and the present ISPM Directors, as well as internationally recognized public health experts who will discuss ISPM’s history and public health yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Annual report ISPM 2020

The annual report ISPM 2020 is online.

Collaboration agreement between ISPM Bern and the Harvard T.C Chan School of Public Health established

The beginning of September 2021 saw the completion of an agreement (confirmed with the signing of an MoU) to collaborate between these two institutions.

ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice launched today with participation of ISPM director Professor Oscar Franco

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice are published online today in European Heart Journal.

ISPM Researchers at meet-the-researcher event in Waisenhausplatz in Bern

Members of the MHCOVID project will present their work to the public in the«Rendez-vous: Forschende im Gespräch» event that will take place on August 27th and 28th at Waisenhausplatz in Bern.

New grant for ISPM to join the WHO special initiative on urban governance for health

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), committed to generating evidence that improves health at the individual, community, population and planetary levels, has now received a grant by the World Health Organization to develop a protocol and implementation strategy for operational research in the WHO special initiative on urban governance for health, equity, and wellbeing (UGH_Bern).

Director of ISPM made «Honorary Professor» by Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

During a virtual ceremony celebrated on August 2nd 2021, Professor Oscar Franco, Director of ISPM Bern, was conferred the title of «Honorary Professor» by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana based in Bogotá, Colombia and among the top universities in Latin America.

New platform on lifestyle and behaviour

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, conscious of the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle throughout the life course and stemming from its commitment to generating evidence that improves health at the individual, community, and planetary levels, has now established a new research group on lifestyle and behaviour.

Poorer people less likely to be tested for SARS-CoV-2 more likely to be hospitalised, enter ICU and die

New research from Switzerland presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year, shows that people living in poorer neighbourhoods were less likely to be tested but more likely to test positive, be hospitalised, or die, compared with those in more wealthy areas. The study is by Professor Matthias Egger and Dr Julien Riou, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Bern, Switzerland.

Swiss Lung Association grant on phenotypes of Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia

Eva Sophie Lunde Pedersen has been awarded a grant from the Swiss Lung Association to identify phenotypes of primary ciliary dyskinesia and study their association with genotypes and disease progression using longitudinal data from a large international study.

ISPM PhD candidate won prize for best oral presentation at the annual congress of the Swiss Society of Paediatrics

Sven Strebel, like Carmen de Jong and Eva Pedersen previously, won the prize awarded in the SwissPedNet session for Translational and Clinical Research in Paediatrics with his presentation “Prevalence and Clinical Risk Factors of Severe Hearing Loss in Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivors.”

Annelies Wilder-Smith appointed as adjunct professor at ISPM

In May 2021, Annelies Wilder-Smith was appointed Adjunt Professor at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine. She will support the work of ISPM and particularly the new research group on community health and health care systems.

European variant from summer 2020 shows the impact of human behaviour and travel on SARS-CoV-2 spread

As Europe once again begins balancing summer holiday travel with pandemic precautions, a paper out today in Nature looks at how post-lockdown border opening and movement helped to spread a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant across Europe last year.

Global warming already responsible for one in three heat-related deaths

An international study coordinated by Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera, researcher of ISPM, in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine shows for the first time the actual contribution of man-made climate change in increasing mortality risks due to heat: between 1991 and 2018, more than a third of all deaths in which heat played a role were attributable to global warming.

Dr. Annika Frahsa appointed as Assistant Professor at ISPM Bern

Promoting health in and with communities is a key area in Public Health research and practise. Supported by an endowment of the Lindenhof Foundation, Annika Frahsa has joined the ISPM team starting in May 2021.

Public Health kompakt: Fourth edition of textbook published

Edited by Matthias Egger, Oliver Razum and Anita Rieder, Public Health kompakt (in German) has established itself as an introductory text for students of medicine, nursing and other health professions in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

COVID-19 and the Inverse Care Law

A study of ISPM Bern / FOPH / ETH Zurich illustrates the inverse care law Julian Tudor Hart proposed 50 years ago.

Publish or perish and the journal impact factor – is the end in sight?

Matthias Egger gave a talk at the «7ème Symposium annuel de recherche» of unisanté, University of Lausanne. The talk is in French.

Congratulations to Sofia Zambrano for the SNSF Eccellenza Fellowship

Sofia Zambrano has received an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship to perform her research at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM). The social scientist studies the role of emotions in the practice of medicine with a special emphasis on how emotions affect the communication between physicians and patients at the end of life.

ISPM is celebrating its 50th birthday! Prevention today and tomorrow!

Since 1971, for 50 years, the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) at the University of Bern has been devoted to the improvement of health and wellbeing of individuals and populations. Through high quality research in the fields of prevention, social medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics and public health and together with numerous national and international partners ISPM stands for health for all.

Only 14% of the Bernese population have antibodies against coronavirus

In the canton of Bern, only 14% of the population were infected with the coronavirus and developed antibodies against SARS-Cov-2. These are the preliminary results of a seroprevalence study coordinated by the Swiss School of Public Health and carried out in Bern by the University of Bern in cooperation with the Inselspital, University Hospital Bern.

The MHCOVID project: Corona and mental health

A global review aims to summarize and make available evidence on the psychological effects of the COVID19 pandemic using an innovative approach, described in the newly released project website. Under the leadership of Prof. Georgia Salanti from the University of Bern (ISPM) and Prof. Stefan Leucht from the Technical University of Munich, a so-called «living» evidence synthesis project (MHCOVID: Mental Health during the COVID-19 pandemic) is being undertaken.

Nicola Low on the board of directors of the new Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases and Immunity (MCIDI)

Despite widespread warnings from the WHO in 2019 about the risks and the prediction of a «disease X», the COVID-19 pandemic caught the world completely off guard.