Projects
The European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine or Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine has been or is involved in several European Union-funded research projects (see below). Since 2007, we are also responsible for the outcomes research and health economic evaluation activities of the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), the leading Swiss collaborative study group in the field of oncology and hematology. In a growing atmosphere of reform of the national approach to Health Technology Assessment (HTA), we are engaged in discussion and are developing cooperation with relevant academic and non-academic players in the field, including health insurance companies. In cooperation with partner institutions from several Swiss universities, we perform HTAs for the Swiss Medical Board (SMB), a non-profit institution funded by the Swiss cantons and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMW).
Projects with industrial partners continue to also play a relevant role, which gives us opportunities to work with raw data from large, multinational randomized clinical studies and to be involved in Health Technology Assessment activities abroad, e.g. in the UK. In cooperation with the Basel Pharmacoepidemiology Unit (BPU; Prof. Christoph Meier), and the Helsana Group, we publish reports on medication utilisation in Switzerland, based on health insurance claims data covering about 15% of the Swiss population (Helsana Arzneimittelreport).
Innosuisse Funded Projects
The SPEARHEAD project, led by the University of Basel Innovation Office with funding from the Innosuisse Flagship programme, brings together research institutions (University of Basel, SUPSI), university hospitals (UKBB, USB, CHUV), and industry partners (Novartis, SwissRe, SWICA) to develop novel approaches to strengthen antimicrobialsStewardship. The project builds on existing initiatives and expertise in pandemic response to rapidly deploy digital solutions to mitigate the clinical, economic, and societal impacts of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by enabling real-time data flow to and from decision-makers, better use of big data for risk stratification, timely diagnostics that can leapfrog centralized laboratory infrastructure, citizen and community engagement, and early consideration of resource needs and efficiency to inform prioritization of candidate technologies. The tools being developed within SPEARHEAD are aimed to be easily adaptable to address future emerging infections and thereby result in a more resilient healthcare system and society.
ECPM leads the Societal and Health Economics work package of SPEARHEAD that aims to analyse the cost-effectiveness of the piloted solutions, inform their scale-up, and consider their broader societal and equity implications.