Further information
The people behind the programme
Management
Sabine Goldhahn is the programme manager of the MAS digital Clinical Research. Trained as a medical doctor, she spent more than 20 years in clinical research. The programme is run under the patronage of Professor Christian Wolfrum, Vice President Research at ETH Zurich.
Lecturers
Our dedicated lecturers and guest lecturers, with their expertise and wealth of experience, form the backbone of the learning journey for our students. Get to know a few of our lecturers below.
Noé Brasier MD is a medical doctor by training with a board certification in general internal medicine from FMH. His research focuses on the translation of wearable body-fluid analysis - especially sweat - into clinical application. Noé graduated from MedSchool of the University of Basel, Switzerland, and received his medical doctoral degree in 2018 from the University of Basel. After concluding his clinical training in general internal medicine, he was awarded a prestigious MedLab Fellowship by ETH Zurich as well as an Early-career Fellowship from Collegium Helveticum in Zurich. Noé Brasier teaches translational science at the department of health science and technology of ETH Zurich and leads an innovative SNSF Lead Agency project to develop a sweat-based age clock of resilience.
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Noé Brasier is lecturer in the CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Andrea Burden received her PhD in pharmacoepidemiology at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2014 from the University of Toronto. In 2014, Andrea Burden received a prestigious Canadian Institutes for Health Research Fellowship (2015-2018) to conduct her post-doctoral research at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. Since May 2018, Andrea Burden is an assistant professor and chair of Pharmacoepidemiology at the ETH, within the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. The research focuses broadly on applying pharmacoepidemiology principles to improve patient care – with primary focus on chronic disease management and medication safety. Her clinical interests focus within musculoskeletal (osteoporosis and rheumatic diseases) and metabolic diseases (diabetes and obesity), with interest in utilizing new methodologies and data sources to investigate the safety and effectiveness of new medications in high-risk populations.
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Andrea Burden is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Ieuan Clay is Director of Science at Vivosense, where his work focuses on development and qualification of digital measures. He is also an Editorial Board Member at Karger Digital Biomarkers. Following his PhD at the University of Cambridge which focused on technology and analytics development, he joined Novartis Research in 2010, where he built and led the Digital Endpoints group within Translational Medicine (early clinical portfolio), implementing new digital measures into trials and advancing qualification of real-world gait speed with the EMA. In 2019, he joined Evidation Health, initially focusing on research strategy and then joining commercial to help build their Heart Health on Achievement health programmes in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology. He then joined the Digital Medicine (DiMe) society in 2021 as Chief Scientific Officer, where he was responsible for scientific strategy and output. Since June 2022, he is Director of Science at VivoSense.
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Ieuan Clay is lecturer in the short course Digital Measures / CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Katrin Crameri is the Co-Lead of the DigiSanté program of the Federal Department of Home Affairs and co-heading the Digital Transformation division at the Federal Office of Public Health FOPH. From 2019 until May 2024, Katrin served as Director of the Personalized Health Informatics (PHI) Group at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, leading the Data Coordination Center of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) and the BioMedIT project of SIB, ETHZ, and the Universities of Basel and Lausanne. She studied molecular biology in Tübingen, Berlin and New York, holds a PhD in Neurosciences and a Master of Public Health. Katrin has over 15 years of experience in the Swiss healthcare system, bringing with her broad expertise in the field of health data and the related biomedical research disciplines. She is a member of a number of national and international committees, committed to advancing the digital transformation of healthcare and promoting better research for better health.
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Katrin Crameri is lecturer in the short course Real-World Data / CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Professor Jens Eckstein is the Chief Medical Information Officer and Head Innovation management at the University Hospital Basel. These roles include digitalization of the hospital and implementation of innovative technologies. He successfully implemented a variety of digitalization projects in the hospital and initiated the digital ethics symposium Basel. The combination of clinical activities as professor for internal medicine and cardiology and the head of the innovation board at the university hospital Basel provide an excellent background for his various teaching activities.
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Jens Eckstein is lecturer in the CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Lisa Fischer is an ERT (European Registered Toxicologist) and Veterinary Specialist for Laboratory Animals. She has more than 15 years of professional experience in preclinical safety/toxicology in medicinal product development, including hands-on experience as Study Director Toxicology in a CRO (Contract Research Organization), as Preclinical Assessor at Swissmedic (Swiss Regulatory Authority) and as Head Toxicology in a start-up. Meanwhile she founded her own company to support biotech start-ups in strategic regulatory decisions and preclinical safety with focus on early product development. She has expert knowledge in preclinical safety/toxicology and the corresponding regulatory framework including aspects of GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) and laboratory animal science. Lisa is passionate about supporting start-ups and getting them on the right pathway as early as possible.
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Lisa Fischer is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Regulatory Thinking.
Lukas Geissmann is partner and Chief Product Officer at Leitwert AG – a startup out of ETH Zurich specialized in software for medical wearables and their integration into healthcare and clinical research organizations. In his role, Lukas collaborates closely with device manufacturers and organizations like the University Hospital Basel and the digital Trial Intervention Platform at ETH to create an infrastructure platform for the direct integration of data streams from any wearable with any digital research or healthcare application. Founded in 2014, Leitwert has already enabled and accompanied 15+ clinical trials and co-developed multiple wearable devices, thereby accumulating deep knowhow in related requirements and best practices.
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Lukas Geissmann is lecturer in the CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Adhideb Ghosh has a degree in Life Science Informatics from the University of Bonn (DE) and a PhD in Molecular and Translational Biomedicine from the University of Zurich. In his PhD research, he analyzed large-scale genomics and clinical data to detect rare disease-causing mutations at the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich and University Hospital Basel. His interest in solving data-driven life science questions for translational research and personalized medicine led to his current position at ETH Zurich. Since 2020, he is working as a bioinformatics scientist to provide support to the life science research community with the analysis and interpretation of next-generation sequencing (transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics) data.
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Adhideb Ghosh is lecturer in the CAS ETH Digital Clinical Trials.
Jörg Goldhahn is an MD by training with postgraduate education in medical physics. During his research carrier at different institutions including orthopedic clinics, large pharma, and ETH, he gained a thorough understanding of planning and execution of clinical trials. He has a special interest in all stages of medical translation and served as the head of the Institute for Translational Medicine until the end of 2023. Since then, he is the study director of the medical curriculum at ETH. He is also chair of the steering board of the digital Trial Intervention Platform (dTIP) and is engaged in different initiatives such as CTTI to develop digital biomarkers.
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Jörg Goldhahn is lecturer in the short course The Power of STudy Design / short course Digital Measures / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Sabine Goldhahn is the programme manager of the MAS ETH in digital Clinical Research. Trained as a medical doctor, she spent more than 20 years in clinical research, most of them with the AO Foundation. She planned, performed, and analyzed mainly orthopedic clinical studies ranging from simple single-center cohort studies to complex, global, randomized, multi-center trials. In her role as the medical director of a Swiss medtech startup she was managing the regulatory and operational challenges of clinical trials for market access. As a communicator and former journalist focusing on science topics, Sabine makes research findings accessible to the public. She is teaching in the medical curriculum and is member of the ethics commission at ETH Zurich.
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Sabine Goldhahn is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Chris Gugl is a digital healthcare pioneer and serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience and an international track record in developing digital healthcare solutions for oncology, cardiology, pulmonology, diabetes care, women's health, immunology and neurology. Chris has sponsored and driven several clinical trials for digital therapeutics and diagnostics in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. He is a passionate, creative out-of-the-box thinker, who shapes new therapies, acting upon patient’s insights and responding to research findings.
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Chris Gugl is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Isabelle Herter-Aeberli studied food science and Nutrition at ETH Zurich and continued with a PhD in childhood obesity at the same university. After postdocs at the University Hospital Zurich as well as St. John’s Research Institute in Bangalore, India, she returned to ETH as a senior scientist and lecturer. Since 2013 she has been responsible for the continuing education programs in Nutrition at ETH. Her engagement in the Swiss nutrition landscape is further demonstrated by her posts as vice president of the Swiss Nutrition Society and president of the National Committee of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.
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Isabelle Herter-Aeberli is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Nutrition in Medicine.
Patrick Hirschi is heading the Clinical Data Platform for Research at the University Hospital of Zurich. In his role, Patrick is responsible for the internal technical work packages related to the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) and The LOOP Zurich for building an infrastructure to enable the nationwide use and exchange of health-related data for research. The Clinical Data Platform and associated data services ensure the sustainability of all efforts of making health care data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. For an efficient and regulatory compliant further use of the data, Patrick and his team are constantly improving the semantic mapping of source data to clinical terminologies, the deidenticifation and the data provisioning services/processes, to the benefit of the whole research community.
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Patrick Hirschi is lecturer in the short course Real-World Data / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Catherine Jutzeler is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science at the ETH Zurich. After completing her BSc and MSc in pharmaceutical science, she pursued her doctoral studies jointly at ETH Zurich and the University Clinic Balgrist applying neurophysiological and neuroimaging methods to assess the neural plasticity in patients recovering from spinal cord injury. Catherine conducted her postdoctoral studies in the field of neuro-pharmacoepidemiology and data science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In 2019, she was awarded with Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Ambizione grant to lead her own research group at the Machine Learning and Computational Biology Laboratory at the ETH Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel. Since January 2022, Catherine and her research group are part of the ETH Department of Health Science and Technology and located in the Schulthess Clinic. Her research group’s research aims to identify causes, risk factors, and biomarkers of neurological disease progression, including Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury. At the core of the group’s work is a series of prospective and retrospective investigations that integrate genetic, biochemical, clinical assessments, and medication history with both traditional epidemiological approaches and machine-learning algorithms.
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Catherine Jutzeler is lecturer in the short course Real-Worl Data / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Sandra Kohlmaier is Senior Research Associate Education and Training as well as Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) Project Lead at the Department of Clinical Research (DKF) Basel, an unit of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Basel, located at the University Hospital Basel. She holds a Master's degree in Biology from the University of Heidelberg with a focus on molecular biology, biochemistry and cell biology, followed by a PhD and a postdoc in Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Lausanne/EPFL at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC). In her professional career she spent six years at Novartis, first as Regulatory Affairs Manager, then as Medical Advisor in the Cardiovascular & Metabolism and Respiratory divisions where she got to know the field of clinical trials on humans. Since 2014, she has been at the DKF Basel, working in the field of education and training as lecturer, course manager and consultant for research groups on various topics in the field of academic clinical research. As PPI Project Lead at the DKF since 2022 she is passionate about making PPI the “new normal” in Swiss clinical research for relevant research that takes us further.
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Sandra Kohlmaier is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Tobias Kowatsch is Associate Professor for Digital Health Interventions at the Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, University of Zurich (UZH), and Director at the School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen (HSG). He is also the Scientific Director of the Centre for Digital Health Interventions, a joint initiative of UZH, HSG, and ETH Zurich. Moreover, Dr. Kowatsch is an advisor to the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Dartmouth, USA, and Lead Principal Investigator for Mobile Health Interventions within the Future Health Technologies Programme at the Singapore-ETH Centre.
In close collaboration with his interdisciplinary team and research partners, Tobias designs digital health interventions («digital pills») at the intersection of information systems research, computer science and behavioral medicine. He helped initiate and participates in the ongoing development of MobileCoach, an open source platform for ecological momentary assessments, health monitoring and digital health interventions. He is also co-founder of the ETH Zurich and University of St.Gallen spin-off company Pathmate Technologies that creates and delivers digital clinical pathways.
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Tobias Kowatsch is lecturer in the external page CAS ETH in Digital Health.
What our participants say
Prof. Dr. Carlo Menon has a Laurea degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Space Sciences and Technologies from the University of Padua, Italy. He was a visiting graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, USA and spent a few years at the European Space Agency, Netherlands before moving to Simon Fraser University, Canada, receiving tenure there in 2012, and setting up the Menrva research group. He is now Full Professor and heads the Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology research group at ETH Zurich. Carlo has been awarded a Tier I Canada Research Chair as well as career awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. He has also published over 200 journal articles. Carlo has a strong interest in translating scientific discovery into impactful technologies.
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Carlo Menon is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Ferdinand von Meyenn has been Assistant Professor at the Institute of Food Nutrition and Health at the ETH Zurich since January 2019. Ferdinand studied Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich, before moving to ETH Zurich for his PhD to study metabolism and type-2 diabetes. After a research fellowship in Cambridge, UK, where he investigated epigenetic mechanisms during development and ageing, he joined King’s College London as a Research Fellow and moved back to ETH Zurich in 2019 where he was appointed Professor for Nutrition and Metabolic Epigenetics. His research focuses on the complex relationship between nutrition, metabolism and the epigenome, with the aim to contribute to the development of novel strategies to combat obesity and metabolic disease, and in particular establish the concepts of disease prevention through healthy diet and nutrition.
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Ferdinand von Meyenn is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Nutrition in Medicine.
Salvatore Modica has a Laurea degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Milano (IT) and a PhD in Life Sciences from the Open University of London (UK). His PhD research focused on gastrointestinal diseases such as cholestasis and colon cancer. He was also a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (USA), where he studied prostate cancer. In 2011 he joined the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (DHEST) at ETH Zurich as postdoc in the laboratory of Professor Christian Wolfrum, and since 2017 he became senior scientist. His research focuses on the role of the adipose organ and liver in metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver. Since 2019 he is responsible for organizing and teaching the course of Precision Medicine for the Bachelor of Human Medicine at ETH Zurich. Since 2021 he is leading the Vector and Virus Production Platform (VVPP) for genome modulation and editing at the DHEST. His interest is in tailoring treatments for metabolic diseases using genetic approaches.
Salvatore Modica is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Kelly Ormond received her MS in Genetic Counseling from Northwestern University (1994) and a post-graduate certificate in Clinical Medical Ethics from the University of Chicago (2001). She joined the Health Ethics and Policy Lab at ETH as a Bioethics Research Scientist in February 2021, and maintains a part time position as Clinical Professor in the Department of Genetics at Stanford School of Medicine. Prior to joining ETH, Kelly practiced as a clinical genetic counselor in the United States for >25 years. She has spent over 20 years educating MS level genetic counselors, most recently at Stanford University (2007-2020), teaching courses in medical genetics, counseling, ethics and research. Her bioethics research focuses on translating new genetic technologies (genome sequencing, non-invasive prenatal diagnosis and gene editing) into clinical practice, consent and disclosure of genetic test results, and personalized medicine.
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Kelly Ormond is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Luzia Rüdlinger is heading the regulatory group at the Pharmaceutical Association Vips, Vereinigung Pharmafirmen in der Schweiz. She is a pharmacist by training (MSc Pharmaceutical Science, ETH Zürich) and holds a SwAPP diploma in pharmaceutical medicine. For most of her career she worked in the pharmaceutical industry, mainly in national and international regulatory functions, as well as medical, quality and pharmacovigilance. In addition, she also has experience in academic clinical research, setting up a clinical trial unit at a Swiss hospital, an initiative by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Luzia is passionate about all aspects in regulatory affairs and how science can be translated into new therapies for patient.
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Luzia Rüdlinger is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Regulatory Thinking
Judith Safford, an accomplished professional with a remarkable journey in the fields of economics, finance, and healthcare. She earned her PhD in Economics and Finance with magna cum laude honors from Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg/DE. With her diploma in NGO-Management from «Verbandsmanagement Institut» (VMI) University Freiburg/CH, Judith combined her expertise with a passion for nonprofit management. From January 2017 to December 2019, she served as the Director of the Institute of Rheumatology Research in Lausanne. Subsequently, from April 2020 to April 2022, Judith led the ESTHER Switzerland program at the University of Bern. Dr. Safford is a enthusiastic SCIANA Fellow since May 2019 and, since May 2021, she is the President and Co-Founder of the RheumaCura foundation. In December 2021, she also assumed the role of Executive Director at the Swiss Clinical Quality Management (SCQM) Foundation. Today, Judith Safford works additionally as an independent consultant, focusing on patient advocacy and public healthcare delivery. Her journey is an inspiring testament to her commitment to improving healthcare and society.
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Judith Safford is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Dietmar Schaffarczyk is Regulatory Expert at the digital Trial Intervention Platform diTiP at ETH Zurich. He is Senior Manager Regulatory Affairs International (Univ. Lübeck). In addition he is a Dipl. Lead Auditor Medical Devices (SAQ / EOQ) and Lead Technical Assessor IVD / MD / PPE. He also works as Dipl. Lead Auditor QMS Medtech, Medical Writer (EMWA) and Clinical Investigator (ConsaMED).
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Dietmar Schaffarczyk is lecturer in the CAS ETH in Regulatory Thinking and the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Ivo Schauwecker holds a degree in biochemistry and a diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine (EUCOR/ECPM). He has over 15 years of professional experience in supporting international human research projects in the healthcare industry. Ivo also was co-founder of the CRO Appletree CI Group (joined by TFS HealthScience in 2022).
He then joined the clinical research institute of the AO Foundation in 2010 and supported the development of major educational programs covering the scope of human research. In October 2023, Ivo started as Managing Director of the dTIP at ETH Zürich. He is also member of the ethics commission at ETH Zurich.
Since 2020, Ivo is volunteering as President of the Swiss platform of the European Patient Academy (EUPATI) and since 2023 he is Member of the Board of the Positive Council, the Swiss activist group of people living with HIV and/or hepatitis.
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Ivo Schauwecker is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials / CAS ETH in Regulatory Thinking.
Daniel Stekhoven is the Managing Director of NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies at ETH Zurich. NEXUS is a core facility dedicated to enable and accelerate biomedical research and development projects. Daniel studied Mathematics at the universities of Basel and Zurich. He received a PhD in Statistics/Mathematics from ETH Zurich. Before he designed and launched NEXUS in 2015, he worked in his own statistical consulting company. Daniel has always had a penchant for teaching and coaching. Since 2013 he has been teaching statistics to undergraduate students, always trying to infect his audience with his enthusiasm for the topic. Daniel is passionate about rigorous data analysis, reproducibility and simply getting things done.
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Daniel Stekhoven is lecturer in the short course Essential Statistics for Medicine / short course The Power of Study Design/ CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Johann Steurer worked for many years as an internist and then for the last 20 years as head of the Horten Center for Patient-Oriented Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Zurich. He studied medicine in Innsbruck and completed his habilitation at the University of Zurich. His focus in clinical research was patient-level research, mainly with diagnostic and prognostic issues. In the last years of his work, he focused on the theory of medicine and its relevance and implications for clinical research.
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Johann Steurer is lecturer in the short course The Power of Study Design / CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.
Christian Wolfrum has a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in the field of Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Münster, Germany. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, USA, before moving to ETH Zürich in 2008, where he received tenure in 2010. He is now Full Professor and head of the Translational Nutrition Biology group at the Department of Health Science and Technologies of the ETH Zürich. His interest is in translational research in the area of metabolic diseases. He was the study director of the HEST and the medical curriculum at ETH before he became the vice president research at ETH in 2023.
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