Research Focus

Clinical Epidemiology, Public Health & Health Systems

Area of Research

EbIM, Evidence-based insurance medicine contributes to generate scientific evidence that doctors and decision-makers at the local, national and international level can use to answer medical questions arising from the various areas of social security and insurance medicine. Under the leadership of EbIM, Cochrane Insurance Medicine (CIM) with its partner countries Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada sensitizes for the enormous need of research evidence in insurance medicine and advocates for international collaboration to reduce these gaps.

• Impairment of work capacity in patients with vertigo – a qualitative interview study
• Survey among the various stakeholders involved in psychiatric disability assessments
• Development of a questionnaire to assess the perceived fairness by claimants with the process of the expert evaluation.
• Development of a training program for psychiatric disability evaluation
• RELY-I, RELY–II and RELY-III
• The organization of sick leave certification - an international comparison
• Swiss general practitioners and sickness certification: a questionnaire survey with Swiss GPs concerning sickness certification, conflicts and needs.

National Collaborations

CONSISTENCY PROGRAM

• Institut Mensch in komplexen Systemen, Hochschule f. Angewandte Psychologie, FHNW
• Assessment Centres: asim Begutachtung; ZMB Zentrum für Medizinische Begutachtung; BEGAZ Begutachtungzentrum; MEDAS Central Switzerland; MEDAS Interlaken.
• Clinical Trial Unit, Department of Clinical Research
• Swiss Association of Insurance Physicians, SGVP
• SIM Swiss Insurance Medicine, ARPEM (Association of French-Speaking Medical Experts)
• SVA (Social Insurance Office) Zürich
• Suva, Swiss National Accident Insurance Funds, Lucerne

GENERAL PRACTICE

• Centre for Primary Health Care, University of Basel
• Institute of General Practice and Health Services Research, University of Zurich
• Institute of General Practice, University of Bern
• Unité de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Médecine de Premier Recours, Université de Genève
• Institut universitaire de médecine générale de Lausanne, Université de Lausanne

DEPARTMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL BASEL AND UNIVERSITY OF BASEL

• Dept. of ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat)
• Dept. of Psychosomatics
• Dept. of Transplantation Immunology & Nephrology
• Institute of Nursing Sciences
• Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (ceb)

OTHERS

• Cochrane Switzerland
• Swiss TPH (Tropical and Public Health Institute)

International Collaborations

• Cochrane Collaboration
• Cochrane Insurance Medicine
• GRADE Working Group (Methods Network, worldwide)
• Evidence-based Insurance Medicine Research Group (NL, CAN, SE, CH)
• Division of Social Insurance, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
• Kenniscentrum Verzekeringsgeneeskunde, The Netherlands
  • Academic Medical Center, AMC, Amsterdam
  • Vrije University Amsterdam,
  • Coronel Institute, University of Amsterdam
  • University Medical Center Groningen
• Dutch Academic Center for Insurance Medicine, The Netherlands
• German Pension Funds. Germany
• EUMASS, European Union of Medicine in Assurance and Social Security.
• Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Canada
• Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research, McMaster University, Canada

CONSISTENCY PROGRAM ON WORK DISABILITY ASSESSMENTS (ongoing)

• Inter-rater agreement in evaluation of disability: A systematic review of reproducibility studies.(published)
• Practice and quality of disability evaluations: a survey among Swiss psychiatrists. (published)/li>
• Attitudes towards evaluation of psychiatric disability claims: a survey of Swiss stakeholders. (published)
• Development of Instrument for Functional Assessment in Psychiatry (IFAP).(Manual)
• Development of training for a structured functional evaluation process in claimants with mental disorders. (Manual)
• The RELY-Studies: Improving the reliability and transparency of medical evaluations and their benefits to social judges, claimants and social insurers. (protocol paper published)
• Functional evaluations – the perceptions of psychiatrists. An interview study. (submitted)
• The interviews of disability evaluations in psychiatry. A content analysis. (ready for submission)
• Development and validation of a questionnaire assessing the fairness of the evaluation process perceived by claimants. (preparation of manuscript)

 KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION

• Information needs in insurance medicine. An international survey. (ready for submission)/li>
• Insurance medicine outcomes in Cochrane reviews. A prevalence study. (ongoing)
• GRADE methodology - Concept papers (ongoing)

 METHODOLOGY FOR INSURANCE MEDICINE

• Work ability in patients with dizziness – ICF-based self-assessment and association with diagnosis and comorbidity. A pilot study. (ongoing)

 SYSTEM APPROACHES TO KEEP PEOPLE WITH IMPAIRMENTS IN THE LABOUR MARKET

• Renal transplantation, employment and disability – Work trajectories of recipients of disability benefits following kidney transplantation? A feasibility study. (ongoing)
• Opioids for chronic non-cancer pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. (ongoing)