Research Focus

Critical Care & Respiratory Medicine

Area of Research

Asthma and COPD, especially predictors of exacerbations and mortality, improving management in primary care practice, optimizing corticosteroid therapy

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National Collaborations
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International Collaborations
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CREATE PRIMA - ​Clinical Research from multi-modality big data sources without proprietary interfaces in a multicenter Approach
Great opportunities linked with the concept of personalized health care (PHC)
Actual progress in developing novel diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic strategies currently limited by factors such as
- unavailability of large clinical datasets
- inaccessibility of these data
- existence of data in a variety of different formats
- predominantly unstructured form of that data
- challenges with regards to linking different data sources for profiling individual patients or patient Groups

RECUT - Reduction of corticosteroid use in outpatient treatment of exacerbated COPD
Randomized, double-blind, non-inferiority study in a primary care setting
Aim of the study —Evaluate in a primary care setting, whether an orally administered corticosteroid treatment of three days duration in acute exacerbation of COPD is non-inferior to a five day treatment duration.
- Validation and optimization of International Guidelines in a primary care setting
- Further reduction of cumulative systemic glucocorticoid exposure for COPD patients

Swiss COPD Cohort Study
It is estimated that about 400’000 patients are affected by COPD in Switzerland. Despite the large prevalence long-term data on symptoms and lung function in this population are lacking. Therefore the goal of the SCCS was to assess the situation of COPD care in Switzerland with a particular focus on medical therapy related to GOLD classification.
Patients with a verified COPD diagnosis (FEV1/FVC < 70% without reversibility with bronchodilator [improvement of FEV1 <200ml or < 12%]) were included into the study by general practitioners and pneumologists in Switzerland. Clinical and spirometry exams were performed at baseline and every six months thereafter including information about medical and non-medical therapy, COPD Assessment Test (CAT-Score) and co-morbidities.

Swiss Severe Asthma Registry
Despite great efforts in establishing optimal asthma management, asthma may often remain uncontrolled. Insufficient adherence to asthma medication, incorrect use of inhalers or insufficient management of cofactors such as smoking, rhinitis or reflux may be the reasons for uncontrolled asthma. To effectively manage chronic diseases, such as asthma, it is important to train patients in self-management skills. Severe asthma on the other hand has to be distinguished from uncontrolled asthma. Severe asthma requires treatment with medications suggested by guidelines for Global Initiative for Asthma stages 4–5 asthma (high-dose inhaled corticosteroids and long- acting β2 agonists or leukotriene modifier or theophylline) for the previous year or systemic corticosteroids for 50% or more of the previous year to prevent the disease from becoming uncontrolled, or asthma that remains uncontrolled despite this therapy. The prevalence of severe asthma and its management in particular is not well known in Switzerland.The aim of this prospective cohort study is to better describe severe asthma patients in Switzerland and their management especially also in terms of use of biologicals such anti-IgEs or Anti-IL5 (receptors) antibodies.