Directing citizens to create advance directives

In Switzerland, it is now mandatory for medical staff to act according to patients’ advance directives. Unfortunately, even though many people know about their ­existence, only a small minority actually draft them.

Immunotherapy in head and neck cancer – scientific rationale, current treatment options and future directions

This review focuses on currently approved immunotherapy for head and neck cancer, and promising immunotherapeutic approaches under clinical investigation.

A digitally facilitated citizen-science driven approach accelerates participant recruitment and increases study population diversity

Conventional clinical studies have a number of shortcomings such as restictive exclusion criteria and failure to address patient-relevant outcomes. Recent developments in society and technology could help to overcome some of these problems.

Accidental or intentional exposure to potentially toxic medications, natural toxins and chemicals during pregnancy: analysis of data from Tox Info Suisse

Pregnant women are daily exposed to potentially harmful agents, such as food products and household chemicals, as well as medications. Affected women and health professionals are still often unsure about how to react.

Trends in the use of mammography for early breast cancer detection in Switzerland: Swiss Health Surveys 2007 and 2012

The value of breast cancer screening programmes is a matter of debate because of the limited effect on mortality, false-positive findings requiring diagnostic workup and possible overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

External validation of the 80+ score and comparison with three clinical scores identifying patients at least 75 years old at risk of unplanned readmission within 30 days after discharge

A potentially avoidable readmission is an unplanned readmission occurring within 30 days of discharge. As 20% of hospitalised elderly patients are rehospitalised as an unplanned readmission, it is necessary to identify those at risk.

The epidemiology of hepatitis C in Switzerland: trends in notifications, 1988–2015

In Switzerland, laboratories and physicians have been obliged to notify the Federal Office of Public Health of individual cases of hepatitis since 1988. This is the first comprehensive analysis of nationwide mandatory hepatitis C surveillance.

Clinical course and prevalence of coercive measures: an observational study among involuntarily hospitalised psychiatric patients

Coercion rates differ between and within countries and sometimes between wards of the same hospital. Previous research found inconsistent characteristics of individuals who underwent coercive measures during psychiatric treatment.

Supplementum 228: Joint annual meeting Swiss Society of Paediatrics, Swiss Society of Paediatric Surgery and Swiss Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy