Overview

Medical need

The identification and quantification of medical need is critical to start an innovation process. Appropriate measures are necessary to quantify functional impairment of patients due to underlying disease mechanisms. The identified deficits serve as a base for new therapeutic approaches. The same measures are also required as a benchmark for success (outcome measures). If widely accepted outcome measures for a specific disease condition are missing planning safety for institutions and industrial partners is not provided and may lead to lack of funding in this area. Therefore, systematic research about the most appropriate instruments to quantify medical need and potential success of therapeutic approaches is required. Our research covers all types of instruments (patient reported outcome, performance tests and digital monitoring with wearable devices). Ideally, they complement each other by covering all domains of health according to WHO.

Translational Science

While the process of translating basic science findings into therapeutic approach is summarized as Translational Medicine (translation into medicine), the science focusing on the translation process is considered as Translational Science (science of translation). The field of investigation is focused on understanding the scientific and operational principles underlying each step of the translational process. Translational science will help to identify common barriers, risk factors for failure but also key components for successful translation. The profound understanding of the translational cycle will help to optimize the process and thereby shorten it, make it more successful and less costly. A translational research project in our group is the investigation of heat strain in the human body.

Scientific basis for the new bachelor in medicine

New teaching concepts are utilized to establish the bachelor in medicine at ETH. This includes the concept of contextual learning, productive failure and flipped classroom. The group does not only introduce those teaching methods but also investigates its effectiveness in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Manu Kapur, chair of learning sciences and higher education. One research project investigates the effectiveness of virtual simulation in medical education.