Personalized Public Health – the Swiss Citizen Study and Biobank at our hearts
The health status of an individual is governed by biological, personal and societal factors. And as drastically experienced in the ongoing pandemic, health of individuals strongly depends on the health of others and the resilience of the health system.To understand these interrelations, to strengthen health and well-being through science-based interventions, and to adequately steer the Swiss health system the provision of health care, routinely collected health data, population-based data, and biological material need to be combined in health data and its associated biobanks to serve the health needs of current and future generations (see website).
Swiss Citizen Study and Biobank
To improve the understanding of diseases and healthy aging, as in other research nations, Switzerland must invest in a large-scale national Swiss Citizen Study and Biobank. An international workshop initiated by Nicole Probst-Hensch in Basel (2011) marks the start of a science-driven initiative to keep Switzerland internationally competitive in health research and at the forefront of the personalized health development. From the very beginning, the SSPH+ faculty fully supported the initiative of Swiss TPH to build national multi-centre capacity and leadership for a large Swiss cohort study.
Launch of a pilot and the power of “we” at times of COVID-19
In the jubilee year, SSPH+ proudly follows the launch of a pilot led by Swiss TPH (Basel) in the Northwestern Switzerland and by Unisanté in Lausanne in the Lemanic region. Moreover, COVID-19 became a strong catalyst for the large-scale SSPH+ population-based sero-survey, coordinated by Milo Puhan to understand the development of immunity as an essential tool in the evidence-based steering of the epidemic. The SSPH+ Faculty members from all parts of Switzerland will have shown to be ready to provide the expertise for the scaling-up of these pilots and serological surveys to a national multi-disciplinary and long-term scientific initiative, undertaken to improve the health of Swiss citizens.
