Hepatitis C micro-elimination among people on opioid agonist therapy is a low-hanging fruit

People who use drugs are badly affected by chronic hepatitis C. As a result of the pragmatic national drug policy in Switzerland, the majority of persons with an opioid dependency are on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and therefore in the healthcare system. For years, national guidelines have recommended that all OAT patients be regularly tested for hepatitis C and, if tested positive, referred for treatment.

Powering Swiss health care for the future: implementation science to bridge “the valley of death”

A 2019 Swiss Academy of Medical Science bulletin addressed the challenge of translational research: the enormous rift between basic scientific discoveries and their use in clinical therapies. The report termed this distance “the valley of death”. Strategies to apply implementation science methods to Swiss health research offer an excellent return on investment. Designing studies specifically to overcome translation barriers promises to remove years from the current research process.

Communication challenges in end-of-life decisions

With the progress in healthcare over recent decades and a growing life expectancy, discussions and decisions regarding end-of-life issues have become increasingly important. Especially in intensive care and emergency medicine there is a growing need of decision making for optimised end-of-life care. Prolonging life and preventing death is considered to be the highest principle of healthcare professionals; however, in some cases alleviation of suffering is a more appropriate goal. This article discusses communication challenges in end-of-life decision making and outlines strategies from an area of growing interest and research.

Outcomes after spinal stenosis surgery by type of surgery in adults aged 60 years and older

Homonymous visual field defects in patients with multiple sclerosis: results of computerised perimetry and optical coherence tomography

Homonymous visual field defects can be the first manifestation of multiple sclerosis and have a relatively good prognosis. The incidence of HVFD in multiple sclerosis is unknown, as it is probably underdiagnosed. 

Choir singing improves respiratory muscle strength and quality of life in patients with structural heart disease – HeartChoir: a randomised clinical trial

Choir singing in combination with respiratory muscle training improved respiratory muscle strength and quality of life in patients with structural heart disease and may therefore be valuable supplements in cardiac rehabilitation.

Concordance of tumour characteristics and survival clustering among pairs of first-degree relatives with breast cancer

Family history is a known risk factor for breast cancer, but its prognostic value and the prognostic value of tumour characteristics in relation to family history has not been clearly established.

Value of the TTM risk score for early prognostication of comatose patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a Swiss university hospital

Since the TTM followed strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, the validity in a general ICU population of cardiac arrest patients is unknown. With this study, the authors aimed to confirm and assess the usefulness in a Swiss population suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outside a clinical trial.