
PD Dr. med.
Lars G. Hemkens, MPH
Position(s)
Senior Scientist, Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel
Deputy Director, Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Institution
University Hospital Basel
Phone +41 61 328 54 04
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Research Group Lars Hemkens
Research Focus
Clinical Epidemiology, Public Health & Health Systems
Area of Research
Routinely collected health data, Pragmatic trials and novel study designs, Meta-Research
Approved Research Projects
- 2019 – 2021 COVID-evidence: a living database of trials on interventions for COVID-19 Swiss National Science Foundation (Principal Applicant)
- 06/2020 – present Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on pathomechanisms, treatment, and outcome of acute stroke at Stroke Units and Stroke Centers in Switzerland Schweizerische Herzstiftung (Co Applicant)
- 2019 – 2021 Swiss Cancer League: “Emerging trends and developments in cancer treatment innovation: expansion of the CEIT-Cancer project (exCEIT)” (Principal Applicant)
- 2019 – 2022 Swiss National Science Foundation: “Generalizability, applicability and pragmatism of clinical trials and their impact on treatment effect estimates: a metaepidemiological study” (Principal Applicant)
- 2017 – 2020 Swiss Cancer League: “Comparative Effectiveness of Treatments for Cancer in Off-label indications – Contrasting Evidence to Reimbursement Reality” (Co Applicant)
- 2017 – 2018 Mach-Gaensslen Stiftung: “Comparative Effectiveness of Innovative Treatments for Cancer in Off-label Indications” (Principal Applicant)
- 2015 – 2018 Swiss Cancer League: “Clinical decision-making with novel cancer treatments: a meta-epidemiological study on the post-approval generation of clinical evidence” (Principal Applicant)
- 2014 – 2015 Forschungsfonds der Universität Basel: “Comparative treatment effects of onlabel and off-label drug use” (Principal Applicant)
- 2014 – 2015 Gottfried und Julia Bangerter-Rhyner-Stiftung: “Concordance of treatment effects of 'real world’ observational data and randomized controlled trials investigating the same health care intervention” (Principal Applicant)
Collaborations
National Collaborations
- Departments of Medical Oncology and of Haematology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel (PD Dr. Dr. B. Kasenda)
- University Medical Library Basel, University of Basel (Dr. Hannah Ewald, PD Dr. Christian Appenzeller-Herzog)
- Cochrane Switzerland, Institute for Social & Preventive Medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne (Dr. E. von Elm)
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel
- Centre for Primary Health Care, University of Basel (Prof. A. Zeller)
- Neurology & Stroke Center & University Center for Medicine of Aging & Rehabilitation, University of Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital Basel (Prof. S. Engelter)
- Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Departement Onkologie/Hämatologie (PD Dr. M. Joerger)
- University Children's Hospital Basel, University of Basel (Dr. J. Bielicki, Dr. D. Fischer)
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel (Prof. A. Widmer, Prof. N Khanna)
- Breast Center, University Hospital Basel (Prof. W. Weber)
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel (Prof. L. Bonati)
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, University Hospital Basel (Prof. M. Donath)
- Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel (Prof. T. Daikeler)
International Collaborations
I currently work with more than hundred collaborators worldwide, including
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, USA (John Ioannidis, Steve Goodman and research fellows)
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Berlin (METRIC-B), Berlin Institute of Health / Charité and Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany (John Ioannidis and research fellows)
- QUEST Center for transforming biomedical research, Berlin Institute of Health / Charité and Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany (Ulrich Dirnagl and research fellows)
- Cochrane Germany, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany (Joerg Meerpohl)
- Florian Naudet, University of Rennes Clinical Investigation Center (INSERM 1414), Rennes, France
- Paula Williamson, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Strategy, chair of COMET-Initiative, Co-Director of Clinical Trials Research Centre, University of Liverpool Institute of Translational Medicine, Department of Biostatistics, UK
- Gerald Gartlehner, Cochrane Austria; /Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Danube University Krems, Austria; Research Triangle Institute International, University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center, USA
- David Moher, Chair of the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network, director of the Center for Journalogy, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada
- Malcolm Macleod, Professor of Neurology and Translational Neuroscience and Academic Lead for Research Improvement and Research Integrity, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Deborah Zarin, Program Director for Advancing the Clinical Trials Enterprise at the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard and former Director of ClinicalTrials.gov (NIH), USA
- Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, CA, USA (R. Stafford)
- Ole Fröbert, Department of Cardiology, Örebro University Hospital, Sweden
- Trial Forge Initiative, Department of Health Services Research, University of Aberdeen, UK (S. Treweek and others)
- B. Speich, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, UK
- A. Agarval, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University ON, Canada (Gordon Guyatt and others)
- T.V. Pereira, Health Technology Assessment Unit, Institute of Education and Health Sciences, Oswaldo Cruz German Hospital, Brazil
- F. Sclafani, Department of Medicine, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust J. Martin-Liberal, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) Hospitalet, Melanoma, Sarcoma and GU Tumors Unit, Barcelona, Spain
- H Verkooijen, Julius Center Research Program Cancer, UMC Utrecht, Netherlands
- R. Al-Shahi Salman, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
- RECORD-group (E. Benchimol, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; S. Langan, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK and others)
- L. Kwakkenbos, Behavioural Science Institute, Clinical Psychology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
- B. Thombs, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
- M. Zwarenstein, University of Western Ontario and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Canada
- Nicole Skoetz, Cochrane Cancer, Cologne, Germany
Ongoing Research Projects
Topic Areas
- Routinely collected data, Real-World-Evidence, Pragmatic trials, Novel study designs
- Traditional Randomized Controlled Trials
- Health Services Research and Pharmacoepidemiology
- Oncology, drug development and regulation
- Covid-19
- Evidence Syntheses, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
- General Clinical Epidemiology and Meta-Research
- Various
SELECTED SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS
1. Routinely collected data, Real-World Evidence, Pragmatic trials, Novel study designs
- Agreement of treatment effects from randomized trials using routinely collected data for outcome assessment and traditional trials; Meta-epidemiology; [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA]
- CONSORT extension for RCTs using cohorts and routinely collected health data; Research Methods & Reporting; [Radboud University, Nijmegen, McGill University, Montreal, Canada and many more]
- COVID-19: Trial platform for preventive and treatment strategies during epidemic and pandemic outbreaks: Immunocompromised Host Collaborative Swiss Cohorts Based Trial Platform Initiative; RCT; funded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- CEIT-RWE: Real-World Evidence to complement approval studies; Meta-epidemiology; [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- A standardized protocol tool and eLearning programme for research using routinely-collected health data: A RECORD initiative to improve methods; Research Methods & Reporting
- PragMeta - Meta-research on pragmatic randomized clinical trials; Meta-epidemiology; www.pragmeta-org; [QUEST, Cochrane Germany, Cochrane Austria, METRICS, University of Rennes, France; Jiménez Díaz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain and many more]
2. Traditional Randomized Controlled Trials
- OPBC-02/ PREPEC: Pre- versus sub-pectoral implant-based breast reconstruction after skin-sparing mastectomy or nipple-sparing mastectomy : A pragmatic, multicenter, randomized, superiority trial; RCT; funded within Investigator Initiated Clinical Trial (IICT) scheme of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); [Breast Center, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland]
- OSPIC: Oral corticosteroids for post-infectious cough in adults; RCT; funded within Investigator Initiated Clinical Trial (IICT) scheme of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); [Centre for Primary Health Care, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- ESTREL: Enhancement of Stroke Rehabilitation with Levodopa, RCT; funded within Investigator Initiated Clinical Trial (IICT) scheme of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); [Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel and Felix-Platter Spital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- THE KIDS-STEP STUDY: Adjunct corticosteroid therapy in hospitalised children with community acquired pneumonia (CAP), RCT; funded within Investigator Initiated Clinical Trial (IICT) scheme of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), [University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- CITrUS trial: Single-dose versus 3-day cotrimoxazole prophylaxis in transurethral resection or greenlight laser vaporisation of the prostate, RCT; funded within NFP 72 scheme of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), [Department of Urology and Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
3. Oncology, drug development and regulation
- CEIT-cancer: The Comparative Effectiveness of Innovative Treatments for Cancer (CEIT-Cancer) project, CEIT-cancer.org, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland and many more]
- CEIT-OLU: Reimbursment of and access to off-label use (OLU) in oncology, CEIT-cancer.org, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- CEIT-OLU: Association of off-label use (OLU) and clinical outcomes in oncology, CEIT-cancer.org, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- CEIT-reporting: Comparison of results of pivotal randomized trials for novel oncology drugs reported in journal articles, trial registries and FDA approval documents, CEIT-cancer.org, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- CEIT-QoL: Quality of life benefits of novel cancer drugs, CEIT-cancer.org, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland and many more]
- Tumor characteristics in randomised trials testing target-specific anticancer drugs, Research Methods & Reporting, [Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland and many more]
4. COVID-19
- COVID-evidence: a living database of trials on interventions for COVID-19, COVID-evidence.org, [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA and many more]
- Core Outcome Set for COVID-19 prevention studies, Research Methods & Reporting, [COMET-initiative; University of Liverpool, UK and many more]
- Association of convalescent plasma use with mortality in COVID-19 patients: an international collaborative meta-analysis, Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA and many more
- Association of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine use with mortality in COVID-19 patients: an international collaborative meta-analysis, Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA and many more]
5. General clinical epidemiology / methods of design, analysis and conduct
- Consideration of confounding in epidemiologic studies, Research Methods & Reporting, [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA]
- Time-to-event analyses in meta-analyses, EbM Meta-Crowd; Meta-epidemiology, [Cochrane Cancer, Cologne, Germany and many more]
- Patient Involvement to Inform the Design of a Clinical Trial in Postbariatric Hypoglycemia, Research Methods & Reporting, [Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland]
- Causal models (Marginal structural models) to analyze randomized clinical trials, Research Methods & Reporting, [METRICS, Stanford University, Stanford, USA]
- Costs and resource use of randomized clinical trials, Research Methods & Reporting; MAking Randomized Trials more Affordable group
6. Various
- Giant Cell Arteritis in Polymyalgia rheumatica, Epidemiology; Prediction score development, [Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland]
- Colchicine for prevention of cardiovascular events, Cochrane Review
- The Open Science dashboard, Research and education, [Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada]