Over the past eight years, the collaborative efforts of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) initiative and the Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) program have laid important groundwork for advancing personalized health research. The two initiatives contributed to the development, implementation and validation of coordinated data infrastructures in order to make health-relevant data interoperable and shareable for research in Switzerland.
Reaching the end of the initiatives by the end of 2024, we warmly invite you to attend the "Data for Health" symposium in Bern on 31 October to discover the achievements and envision the future Swiss health research data ecosystem. The event will bring together stakeholders of the health care and research data ecosystem, including industry leaders and political representatives, patients, international experts and researchers, to discuss and foster personalized health research and care in Switzerland.
Please click on the link below to view the program. We will update it continuously and share all relevant information about speakers, sessions and timeline here.
Karin Frei has worked for Swiss National Radio and Television for almost thirty years, as a Journalist and Anchorwoman. Today she has her own business, solves conflicts as a Mediator and works as a Moderator at conferences often in the field of research, Energy and sustainability.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Martina Hirayama Head of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) at Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research
Martina Hirayama studied Chemistry at the ETH Zurich, the University of Fribourg and Imperial College London, graduating from ETH Zurich with a doctorate in technical sciences (Dr. sc. Techn). She went on to do postgraduate studies in Business Economics at the ETH Zurich, and completed her thesis in 1997. She then worked in the ETH Zurich’s Department of Materials, becoming head of the Polymer Chemistry Group in 2001. During this time, Ms Hirayama co-founded a start-up in new coating technologies, and was CEO of the company until 2008. In 2003 she began lecturing in Industrial Chemistry at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur ZHW (now ZHAW), where she developed and headed the field of polymer materials and obtained her professorship. From 2007 to 2010 she developed the ZHAW’s Institute of Materials and Process Engineering. From 2011 to 2018 she was Director of the ZHAW School of Engineering, a member of the university’s executive board and from 2014 head of International Affairs. From 2012 to 2018 Martina Hirayama was president of the board of the Federal Institute of Metrology METAS, from 2011 to 2018 vice president of the Innovation Promotion Agency Innosuisse board (until 2017 the Commission for Technology and Innovation) and from 2016 to 2018 a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation board. She was also on the boards and executive committees of several other organisations, namely the Swiss Study Foundation, the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences SATW, the Zurich Chamber of Commerce, and the Kuratorium of the Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg (Germany). Moreover, she acted as an expert for the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR) and the European Commission.
Russ Biagio Altman is the Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, Biomedical Data Science and (by courtesy) Computer Science) and past chairman of the Bioengineering Department at Stanford University. His primary research interests are in the application of computing (AI, data science and informatics) to problems relevant to medicine. He is particularly interested in methods for understanding drug action at molecular, cellular, organism and population levels. Russ Biagio Altman is the Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, Biomedical Data Science and (by courtesy) Computer Science) and past chairman of the Bioengineering Department at Stanford University. His primary research interests are in the application of computing (AI, data science and informatics) to problems relevant to medicine. He is particularly interested in methods for understanding drug action at molecular, cellular, organism and population levels. Russ is also the chairperson of the SPHN International Advisory Board.
Antoine Geissbühler is an internist and specialist in medical informatics. A full professor since 2006, he is also Director of the HUG Innovation Centre and Head of the Division of e-Health and Telemedicine, which has been designed as a WHO collaborating centre. His research focuses on the design and application of new IT tools in the medical field. In particular, he helped implement Switzerland's e-health strategy and developed the RAFT project, a major telemedicine network linking hundreds of healthcare professionals in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Antoine is also the chairperson of the SPHN National Advisory Board and the ORD Taskforce Health and Life Science Data.
Anne Lévy
Director-General of the Federal Office of Public Health FOPH (since 2020)
Lic. sc. pol. degree in political science (University of Lausanne), Executive MBA (University of Fribourg)
Anne Lévy coordinates the FOPH’s business with the FDHA’s planning. She assures representation of the FOPH, and in some cases the FDHA, in interdepartmental working groups and on parliamentary committees and international bodies. In addition, Anne Lévy heads and plans healthcare reform projects at the national level.
2015–20 CEO, University Psychiatric Clinics, Basel | 2009–15 Head of Health Protection, Basel-Stadt Department of Health, Basel | 2004–09 Head of Alcohol and Tobacco Section, FOPH, Bern| 2003–04 Technical Assistant to the Assistant Director and Head of the Main Unit Substance Abuse and AIDS, FOPH, Bern | 2001–03 Research Associate, Head of Coordination and Service Platform for Addiction, FOPH, Bern | 2000 Project Manager, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), New York
Dr. med. Katharina Gasser
General Manager of Roche Pharma Switzerland
Dr. med. Katharina Gasser studied medicine with a specialization in pharmaceutical medicine. She gained practical experience as a doctor in internal medicine and geriatrics and then moved into the healthcare industry, where she worked for many years in various management positions in Switzerland and around the world. Since September 2022 she is the General Manager of Roche Pharma Switzerland.
Location & Travel
The symposium takes place at the Kursaal Bern (Kornhausstrasse 3, 3001, Bern) in the picturesque capital of Switzerland. The Kursaal is a modern conference center with all amenities that is situated at the heart of Bern and offers astonishing views of the surrounding mountains.
Arrival by public transport: Streetcar line no. 9 takes you from Bern railroad station (Kante B) directly to the "Kursaal" streetcar stop (near Viktoriaplatz) in only 4 minutes.
Arrival by car: The Kursaal can be reached by car via all common routes. You can follow the route given by your navigation system / Google Maps. Use "Kursaal Parking" as the address, the hotel's own underground parking garage with 240 parking spaces.
Information & Contact
If you have any question concerning the symposium, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can contact us on:
Students, PhDs and Postdocs can attend the event free of charge.
When registering, please select the appropriate category. The fee has to be paid by electronic payment. We do not issue bills and sales are final and cannot be canceled and/or reimbursed.
