Journal: Swiss Medical Weekly

Abbreviation

Swiss Med Wkly

Publisher

Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag

Journal Volumes

ISSN

1424-7860
1424-3997

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2008 - 200912020 - 20214
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Publications 1 - 5 of 5
  • Resource allocation to brain research in Switzerland
    Item type: Journal Article
    Jäger, Matthias; Lekander, Ingrid; Sobocki, Patrik; et al. (2008)
    Swiss Medical Weekly
    Questions under study: This study represents a first attempt at estimating Swiss resource allocation to brain research including both public and private spending. Methods: In order to estimate public spending (by governments and charities) a survey was conducted to evaluate the way brain research is funded across Europe and especially in Switzerland. Industry funding was measured using different approaches including a survey of pharmaceutical expenditures and the costs of developing new drugs. Results: Private spending is at a reasonable level because a highly developed Swiss pharmaceutical industry invests significantly in this branch of science. However, public spending is at a low level compared to other European countries, although Switzerland is the only European country where the total funding per capita exceeds that of US funding. Conclusions: A detailed investigation of Swiss resource allocation to different branches of biomedical research is warranted. Brain research should be an important part of such a study. The United States and the European Union have selected brain research as one of their priority areas within health related research. The present figures indicate that this may also be justified in Switzerland.
  • A case study of short-term forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic: The platform icumonitoring.ch
    Item type: Review Article
    Petermann, Markus; Fröhlich, Jürg; Wyler, Daniel (2021)
    Swiss Medical Weekly
    Compartmental models, such as the well-known SEIR model, which divides the population into Susceptible (to the infection), Exposed, Infectious and Recovered persons, and mathematically models their interdependence, are paradigms of mathematical epidemiology. It is therefore natural that epidemiologists attempt to use appropriate variations of such models to forecast quantities of interest and importance to policymakers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Common to all these models and variations is that they are based on the complex mathematics of differential equations.
  • Reproductive number of the COVID-19 epidemic in Switzerland with a focus on the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft
    Item type: Journal Article
    Scire, Jérémie; Nadeau, Sarah Ann; Vaughan, Timothy G.; et al. (2020)
    Swiss Medical Weekly
    The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on 30 January 2020, after rapid spread from a few initial cases to thousands of cases across China and introductions into several other countries. On 11 March 2020, the WHO classified the outbreak as a pandemic. The first cases in Switzerland, Basel-Stadt, and Basel-Landschaft were confirmed on 25 February, 27 February and 28 February 2020. As of 22 April 2020, there are 28,154 confirmed cases in Switzerland, including 933 and 811 in the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, respectively. The rapid increase of confirmed cases in March suggests considerable community transmission. We estimated the reproductive number through time for the whole of Switzerland and its cantons for which sufficient data are available. For this estimation, we used publicly available data on the number of confirmed cases and COVID-related deaths through time, as well as additional data directly obtained from the University Hospital of Basel and the Cantonal Office of Public Health, Economics and Health Directorate of Basel-Landschaft. If the reproductive number is below 1, the epidemic is overall under control for that specific location, with the number of new infections per day decreasing through time. If this number is above 1, the epidemic is exponentially increasing in size. We found that the reproductive number in Switzerland was between 1.5 and 2 during the first third of March, and has consistently decreased to around 1. After the announcement of the latest strict measure on 20 March 2020, namely that gatherings of more than five people in public spaces are prohibited, the reproductive number dropped significantly below 1, we estimated the reproductive number to be between 0.6 and 0.8 in the first third of April. Our sensitivity analyses addressed the concern of a decreasing reproductive number being merely an artifact of less intense testing through time. In summary, our results suggest that from the last week of March onwards, the reproductive number was significantly below 1 in Switzerland and thus the epidemic was declining. However, our analyses do not allow us to identify a cause for this decline. From now on, we will provide daily estimates for the reproductive number on our webpage. Important to note in this respect is that estimates of the reproductive number lag about 10 days behind the last date of data collection since confirmation of the diagnosis occurs around 10 days after infection.
  • Expert recommendation from the Swiss Amyloidosis Network (SAN) for systemic AL-amyloidosis
    Item type: Journal Article
    Schwotzer, Rahel; Flammer, Andreas J.; Gerull, Sabine; et al. (2020)
    Swiss Medical Weekly
    Systemic amyloidosis is a heterogeneous group of diseases associated with protein misfolding into insoluble beta-sheet rich structures that deposit extracellularly in different organs, eventually compromising their function. There are more than 30 different proteins, known to be amyloidogenic with “light chain” (AL)-amyloidosis being the most common type, followed by transthyretin (ATTR)-, and amyloid protein A (AA)-amyloidosis. Systemic amyloidosis is a rare disease with an incidence of around 10 patients in 1 million inhabitants. Recently several new therapeutic options have been developed for subgroups of amyloidosis patients, and the introduction of novel therapies for plasma cell myeloma has led to an increase in the therapeutic armamentarium for plasma cell disorders, including AL amyloidosis. Among them, proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory agents (-imids), and monoclonal antibodies have been successfully introduced into clinical practice. Still, high-quality data from randomised controlled trials regarding the benefit of these cost-intensive drugs in AL amyloidosis are widely lacking, and due to the rarity of the disease many physicians will not gain routine experience in the management of these frail patients. The diagnosis of AL amyloidosis relies on a close collaboration between clinicians, pathologists, imaging experts, and sometimes geneticists. Diagnosis and treatment options in this complex disorder should be discussed in dedicated multidisciplinary boards. In January 2020, the first meeting of the Swiss Amyloidosis Network took place in Zurich, Switzerland. One aim of this meeting was to establish a consensus guideline regarding the diagnostic work-up and the treatment recommendations for systemic amyloidosis tailored to the Swiss health care system. Forty-five participants from different fields in medicine discussed many aspects of amyloidosis. These are the Swiss Amyloidosis Network recommendations which focus on diagnostic work-up and treatment of AL-amyloidosis.
  • Shared decision making: patients have a right to be informed about possible treatment options and their risks and benefits
    Item type: Journal Article
    Rosca, Ana; Krones, Tanja; Biller-Andorno, Nikola (2020)
    Swiss Medical Weekly
Publications 1 - 5 of 5