Short courses

This short course will provide participants an in-​depth understanding of both foundational concepts and practical realities in developing new digital measures, biomarkers and endpoints for use in clinical trials.

Who will benefit from this course?

The ETH Pearl Digital Measures is designed for physicians, health care providers, and professionals in start-​ups, MedTech and pharma companies, in Clinical Research Organisations (CRO's) and patient organisations. This course is approved by SIWF. Swiss doctors who complete this module will receive 25 credits toward their non-​specific continuing education requirements.

Course content

Foundations of developing, validating and qualifying novel digital evidence generation tools for use in clinical trials:

1. Patient-​Focused Drug Development and Patient-​centricity in Evidence Generation
2. Symptom-​Sensor Mapping and Evaluation Foundations
3. Technology Evaluation and Selection
4. Evaluation of Digital Measures
5. Digital Measure Qualification
6. Digital Measures in Reimbursement

The course includes input lectures, remote preparation, blended learning, and a workshop. Participants will develop their own conceptional case studies for a novel digital measure: exploring the application of patient-​centric research; best practices for deciding on the right technology; validation of the new measure. Complimentary learning material is provided online.

This ETH Pearl Digital Measures comprises one module of the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials.

Course details

• Course language: English

The short course Essential Statistics for Medicine I aims to assist participants in accessing and/or refreshing their statistical knowledge for its application in medicine.

In this short course, interactive online learning is utilised to develop an intuitive understanding of essential aspects of statistics in medicine. Each week, participants will engage in exploring concepts such as random variables and hypothesis tests. Additionally, a three-​​hour coaching session per week will aid in comprehending and applying the blended-​​learning content to real-​​world medical examples and research articles. The coaching sessions will be conducted on-​site at ETH Zurich.

This course is also recognised as pre-​​course for the continuing education programmes CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials or MAS ETH in digital Clinical Research.

Course content (one block per week)

• Block 1: Introduction to probability, data analysis & statistics
• Block 2: Statistics fundamentals
• Block 3: Random variables & distributions
• Block 4: Statistical data analysis

Course details

• The course has a total duration of 4 weeks, with an allocation of 4–5 hours per week for self-​​study (totaling 16–​20 hours of self-​​study) and 3 hours of contact time per week.
• Course language: English

Dive into the essence of clinical trials, discover patient-​centric approaches, and explore novel study designs. This ETH Pearl comprises one module of the CAS ETH in Digital Clinical Trials. It will guide participants through designing a clinical study and introduces established study designs and study elements, as well as modern study concepts and observational designs to address clinical questions. Another focus is on patient perspectives and patient preference studies.

This continuing education short course is designed for physicians, health care providers, and professionals in start-​​ups, MedTech and pharma companies, in Clinical Research Organisations (CRO's) and patient organisations. It is approved by SIWF. Swiss doctors who complete this module will receive 25 credits toward their non-​​specific continuing education requirements.

Course content

• Critical appraisal of clinical research literature, application of evidence levels, and utilisation of checklists
• Designing clinical studies with a focus on object design, diagnostic and prognostic studies, and consideration of confounding factors
• Planning and conducting clinical studies in an ethical way
• Outcomes in clinical studies, definition, hierarchies, Clinical Outcome Assessments (COA), psychometric methods for validating Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs), and cross-​​cultural adaptations
• Feasibility of clinical studies
• Healthcare system basic aspects of Health-​​Technology Assessment
• Observational studies and their role in clinical research: Pros and cons
  
• Bias and confounding in real-​​world data
• New study designs: adaptive, basket, umbrella, data-​​enriched design
• Patient-​​centered research, patient involvement in human research

Course details

• The course has a total duration of 5 weeks. Please, plan with an allocation of 5–8 hours per week for self-​​study.
• Course language: English

The ETH Pearl Real-​​World data (RWD) provides an overview of the importance of RWD, different RWD sources, and how RWD can be exploited in healthcare, clinical and personalised health research, as well as in regulatory decision making. The course will address ethical, methodological and regulatory challenges related to the use of RWD in clinical research and health care.

This continuing education short course is approved by SIWF. Swiss doctors who complete this module will receive 25 credits toward their non-​​specific continuing education requirements.

Course content

• Introduction and Overview: Importance of RWD and their potential in healthcare, clinical research, personalised health research, as well as regulatory decision making; Overview on different RWD types, source systems of RWD, RWD availability, and challenges related to the use of RWD.
• Challenges of RWD; Clinical Data Platforms: General introduction on clinical data, detailed description of the set-​up of a Clinical Data Platform, aspects of data interoperability, standards and quality. What does it take for the further use of RWD in a hospital setting? Aspects of data specification, data de-​identification, and data provisioning for secondary usages.
• Routine clinical data: Prerequisites for working with health data; Implementation of the legal and ethical requirements when handling health data.
• From data to value: Deep dive in RWD interoperability aspects and semantics; Data models, data standards, ontologies, classifications and Terminologies; FAIR data.
• RWD in Switzerland and abroad: Insights in examples of RWD collections in Switzerland and their challenges and chances; International examples of RWD applications; RWD and its use in pharma industry.
• Practical exercise: Get your hands on data (mock datasets will be made available), characterize/profile the dataset, query the data, identify data quality issues, etc.

Course details

• The course has a total duration of 5 weeks. Please, plan with an allocation of 5–8 hours per week for self-​​​study.
• Course language: English

Immerse yourself in the enriching experience of Nutrition in Medicine I, a concise yet comprehensive course designed to provide participants with a profound insight into the critical role of nutrition in preventing metabolic diseases and in nutrition monitoring.
Experience the flexibility of our short course, tailored for your convenience. Dive into a new topic every two weeks with engaging recorded input lectures, followed by immersive online interactive sessions that allow you to delve deeper into each subject. Besides classic dietary assessment methods, the first module introduces novel techniques in digital nutrition monitoring as well as digital health. In the second module, nutritional aspects related to prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes are covered. Additional topics are muscle and exercise as well as diets.

This course is accredited by the SGED (Swiss Society for Endocrinology and Diabetology) for 15 points in the advance training for medical doctors.
Course content

Module 1:

Block 1: Classic dietary assessment
Block 2: Digital Health and digital food monitoring

Module 2:

Block 3: Obesity and childhood obesity
Block 4: Diets, muscle and exercise
Block 5: Diabetes and related nutritional interventions

The course is part of the CAS Nutrition in Medicine. The total duration is 2 months from end of October to before Christmas, ca. every second Tuesday. Recorded lectures and additional material will be made available 2 weeks before the life interactive sessions on Tuesday afternoon.

Course details

•  The course takes place ca. every second week on Tuesday afternoon from end of October to end of December. In addition, please plan about 4-5 hours for recorded lectures as well as 2-4 hours for self study and preparation per study day.
• Course language: English  

The short course Nutrition in Medicine 2 allows you to discover the critical role of nutrition in the areas of diseases of ageing, allergies, and inborn errors, and to dive into the field of food-health interactions.
Experience the flexibility of our short course, tailored for your convenience. Dive into a new topic every two weeks with engaging recorded input lectures, followed by immersive online interactive sessions that allow you to delve deeper into each subject. In the first module the importance of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of age related diseases including cancer are introduced along with its role in public health. The second module encompasses the prevention of inborn-errors, precision therapy, allergies as well as eating disorders, followed by toxicology as well as food-drug interactions.
This course is accredited by the SGED (Swiss Society for Endocrinology and Diabetology) for 15 points in the advance training for medical doctors.

Course content:

Module 1:

Block 1: Age related disease, cachexia
Block 2: Cancer and Nutrition
Block 3: Public Health

Module 2:

Block 4: Anorexia and eating disorders
Block 5: Toxicology
Block 6: Food-drug interactions

The course is part of the CAS Nutrition in Medicine. The total duration is 2 months from end of February to April, ca. every second Tuesday. Recorded lectures and additional material will be made available 2 weeks before the life interactive sessions on Tuesday afternoon.

Course details: 

• The course takes place ca. every second week on Tuesday afternoon from end of February to mid April. In addition, please plan about 4-5 hours for recorded lectures as well as 2-4 hours for self study and preparation per study day.
• Course language: English