Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) at the University of Bern provides undergraduate and postgraduate education and carries out interdisciplinary research in the fields of social and behavioural health, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, and international and environmental health.

Eminent speakers from Switzerland and abroad give presentations at monthly lectures where researchers from other institutes and members of the public are welcome to attend.

To learn more about ISPM and public health read «ISPM2030 – Vision, Aim, Mission», sign up for a news subscription, take a look at our events overview, apply for our job openings, search for staff members in our team list and follow these quicklinks to related sites.

News and events

5 day course «Applied Logistic Regression» with Prof. Stanley Lemeshow and Dr. Ben Spycher

We are pleased to announce the 5day-course Applied Logistic Regression by Stanley Lemeshow and Ben Spycher taking place March 9-13, 2020 here in Bern.

Network meta-analyses: why, what, and how.

Interview with Georgia Salanti at the Effective Statistician.

Tweets von @unibern

Bern Epidemiology Lecture Series Big Data and the End of Epidemiology

18 December

The Bern Lectures in Health Science Bridging epidemiology and basic science in risk assessment: lessons and uncertainties from the selenium example

09 January

Symposium «Clinical data for paediatric research: the Swiss approach»

Date 5./6.12.2019 – Front-line clinicians, paediatric researchers, families, and healthcare system strategizers in Switzerland need immediate access to real world data from electronic health records so they can conduct high quality research that will answer emerging questions in paediatrics and then implement their findings to improve paediatric health care.

The new Climate Change & Health research group at ISPM has just started

Our new research group on Climate Change and Health, led by Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera, has just been launched. The group will investigate the impacts of climate change on health, with particular focus on the evaluation of adaptation strategies, mitigation policies and air pollution co-benefits.

SSPH+ ScienceFlashTalk Winner

Serra Lem Asangbeh, PhD student at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), won the 2019 SSPH+ ScienceFlashTalk Award at the Swiss Public Health Conference in Winterthur on 28 August 2019.

SNSF Ambizione Grant on upper airways disease in Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia

Myrofora Goutaki has been awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant to characterise and provide first evidence for the management of upper airways disease in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia in a large multi-national project.

Georgia Salanti was elected president of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology

The Society for Research Synthesis Methodology is a cross disciplinary society that supports and promotes the development and use of innovative and robust methods of research synthesis and publishes the journal Research Synthesis Methods.

Read this before it’s out of date: Zika Open Access Project in @NatureIndex

Living systematic reviews can keep up to date with research on Zika virus, a fast-moving field. Journalist Jon Brock features the PhD project of ISPM PhD student Michel Counotte «Zika virus: causality, open science and risks of emerging infectious diseases»

Two new PhD students in Sexual and Reproductive Health

Diana Buitrago won a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship and a SSPH+ GlobalP3HS Fellowship to study «The science of prevalence». Ranjana Gigi won a Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences MD-PhD award to study «Genital tract infections, the vaginal microbiome and preterm birth in South Africa».

National Strategy against Cancer – «every number is being used»

The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR) – a success story since its foundation in 1976. A challenge with the cancer registration law coming into force in 2020.

Open spaces available in course «Prognostic Research: Concepts and Models»

Course date: 21–23 August 2019 - Prognostic research is fundamental to clinical decision making, healthcare policy, and discovering new approaches to patient management. In this course we describe the basic concepts used to develop, validate, and implement a prognostic model in clinical practice and discuss how a web-based calculator might be constructed to give a useful decision-making tool.

Professor Oscar H Franco appointed as Adjunct Professor at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Professor Oscar H Franco, Director of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) in Bern, has been appointed as Adjunct Professor at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Workshop «Infectious Disease Surveillance»

This workshop will take place November 25th, 2019 and provide an overview of the current state in the field of infectious disease surveillance, from the perspective of both data collection and data analysis.

Suicide ideation continues to be high in Swiss young adults

Suicide ideation is a well-known risk factor contributing to early mortality in young adults. The long-term project, «Young Adult Survey Switzerland» (YASS) 2014/15 has shown that the proportion of Swiss young men with suicidal thoughts has since 2010/11 remained fairly stable, and high, at about 12%.

Agreement on joint academic and scientific activities focused on cardiovascular disease prevention

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) and the University of Bern signed an agreement with the Federal State Budgetary Organization National Cardiology Research Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The objective of this agreement is to develop joint academic and scientific activities mainly focused on cardiovascular disease prevention.

Global disparities in cervical cancer rates among women with HIV

A study by an international group of researchers led by a team at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, found that the incidence rates of cervical cancer are particularly high among women living with HIV in South Africa or Latin America.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Zeltner joins ISPM as Honorary Professor

Prof. Dr. Thomas Zeltner has an outstanding career in public health. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Public Health at the University of Bern and is a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston). He serves as Deputy Chair of the University Council of the Medical University of Vienna (Austria).

Primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases for Albanian-speaking migrants living in Switzerland

In the framework of a new pilot project between the Research Group on Migration and Health and Diaspora TV Switzerland, we produced a video on the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases for Albanian-speaking migrants living in Switzerland, with the collaboration of Dr. Taulant Muka, Leader of the Research Group on Cardiometabolic Health.

ISPM PhD student Carmen de Jong wins prize for best oral presentation

Carmen de Jong won the prize for best oral presentation of the SwissPedNet Translational & Clinical Research session with her talk «Diagnosing asthma accurately in school-aged children suspected to have asthma» at the Swiss Conference for Pediatrics (SGP).

Two members of the ISPM staff nominated Fellows of SSPH+

Two members of the ISPM staff have been nominated Fellows of SSPH+: Taulant Muka, Leader of the Research Group on Cardiometabolic Health, and Luciano Ruggia, Leader of the Research Group on Migration and Health.

Inauguration of the Bern Center for Precision Medicine (BCPM)

Precision medicine “tailored” to individual patients is regarded as the medicine of the future. The new Bern Center for Precision Medicine will exploit synergies and strengthen the medicinal location in Bern. The Bern Center for Precision Medicine is an initiative founded by the Canton, the University, and the University Hospital of Bern.

For a stronger new Swiss Law on tobacco products

ISPM joins forces with other public health actors to advocate for a stronger Swiss Law on tobacco products. The new law should better protect the youth from tobacco consumption, should forbid advertisement for tobacco products and should aim at a decrease of tobacco consumption in the Swiss population.

Teacher of the year 2018 in Master of Public Health

Julia Bohlius has been awarded as «Teacher of the year 2018» in the three University MPH program for her course «Einführung in systematische Reviews und Meta-Analysen».

SNSF Grant on quality of care in eosinophilic esophagitis

Ekaterina Safroneeva has been awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation grant to develop process-of-care measures and identify long-term treatment targets for adults with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Increasingly recognized though not commonly seen, EoE is a chronic, immune-mediated disease in which untreated inflammation leads to esophageal remodeling with stricture formation and food bolus impactions.

Teacher of the year 2018

Thomas Abel has been selected as «Teacher of 2018» in the three University MPH program for his course «Grundlagen der Gesundheitswissenschaft und Sozialepidemiologie».

Report about Medicus Mundi Switzerland (MMS) in Television

MMSs new manifesto «Health for all in one generation» as well as the work of the network MMS attracted the attention of Ticino television and was presented in a multi-minute report by the broadcaster Il Quotidiano. ISPM is one of the 50 organizations members of the MMS network.

ISPM2030 – Vision, Aim, Mission online

The 2018 report «ISPM2030 – Vision, Aim, Mission» is now available online

Portrait article about Matthias Egger in journal «The Lancet. Infectious diseases.»

A portrait article about Matthias Egger was published in the March issue of the journal «The Lancet. Infectious diseases.». In the same issue, the publication «Drug susceptibility testing and mortality in patients treated for tuberculosis in high-burden countries: a multicentre cohort study» was also published.

Video podcast

Faster and trustworthy guidelines for shared decision making: Experience from the BMJ Rapid Recommendations - Seminar by Dr. Thomas Agoritsas, 21.02.2019

CAS in Clinical Research in Health Care Organisations – application deadline

One month left to sign up for the next course of advanced studies in clinical research – application deadline March 15, 2019.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis: high mortality rate due to inaccurate tests

Inaccurate tests carried out on tuberculosis patients in developing countries often fail to reliablydetect resistance to drugs, leading to incorrect treatment and a higher mortality rate. These are the results of study by an international group of researchers led by a team at the University of Bern published today.

Trends in influenza vaccination uptake in Switzerland: Swiss Health Survey 2007 and 2012

It’s influenza (flu) season again in Switzerland, and this week the virus reached the epidemic threshold. Flu takes more lives than any other infectious disease in Europe, but a simple and effective yearly vaccine can reduce the chance you will catch it.

10th Swiss Epidemiology Winter School started

The 10th Swiss Epidemiology Winter School takes place during this week in Wengen from January 21st to 26th 2019.

Symposium Research Group «Climate Change and Health»

The new Research Group «Climate Change and Health» at OCCR and ISPM
Invitation to the OCCR and ISPM Symposium

5 day course «Applied Logistic Regression» with Prof. Stanley Lemeshow and Dr. Ben Spycher

We are pleased to announce the 5day-course Applied Logistic Regression by Stanley Lemeshow and Ben Spycher taking place March 11-15, 2019 here in Bern.

Open Day Uni Mittelstrasse

Impressions of the Open Day at the Uni Mittelstrasse

Preventing preterm birth and neonatal infections in Papua New Guinea

ISPM Professor Nicola Low has been visiting the WANTAIM project in Papua New Guinea. «Wantaim» means «once» or «together» in Tok Pisin creole. It is a perfect fit for the research project, «Women and Newborns Trial of Antenatal Intervention and Management».

Chlamydia screening trial prompts rethink about control strategy

Opportunistic testing for the sexually transmitted infection, chlamydia, amongst young adults attending general practices, did not reduce prevalence after three years.

New seminar podcast: Dementia - the burden on societies, challenges for research

New ISPM presentation video

The new ISPM presentation video is online.

Open Day Uni Mittelstrasse

The Uni Mittelstrasse will open its doors on Saturday, 27 October 2018, 10-18 pm.

Interview on digital transformation in the healthcare sector in Primary Care and Hospital

The digital transformation is fundamentally changing the professional world of health workers. Prof. David Schwappach explains the risks and opportunities of technological trends in the healthcare sector and explains the advantages and disadvantages of electronic patient records.

Thomas C Chalmers award for ISPM’s Adriani Nikolakopoulou

Adriani Nikolakopoulou of ISPM’s Evidence Synthesis Methods research group won the Thomas C Chalmers award for the best oral presentation at the Cochrane Colloquium in 16-18 September 2018 in Edinburgh.

Better understanding, research and treatment of childhood cancer

The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR) at the University of Bern has been collecting data on children and adolescents suffering from cancer in Switzerland for over 40 years. Now, on behalf of the Confederation, the registry will be converted into a Federal Childhood Cancer Registry, which will further improve the documentation, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children and adolescents.

SRF Tagesgespräch: Matthias Egger and Michael Hagner on Open Access

Open Access aims to make scientific research freely accessible to all and thus to counteract the major publishers and their business model. In the SRF «Tagesgespräch», Matthias Egger of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the science historian Michael Hagner discuss Open Access.

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