16th and 17th November 2021: Bridging Research, Policy and Practice: Annual Meeting of the SLHS - Public and Network Event

This year’s Annual Meeting of the SLHS was partly held as a public event to showcase the work of the first funding phase of the project. Besides parallel sessions during which members, and in particular current and former PhD students of the SLHS presented their work on policy briefs, the event also highlighted the importance of bridging research, policy and practice.

Anja Frei from the University of Zurich, and Fabian Vollrath from the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) / APS AG, gave a very compelling keynote on Corona Immunitas, a project which aims at generating reliable, comparable, and high-quality data on Corona infections in Switzerland, which should inform policies and decision-making to fight the pandemic.

Following that, three parallel sessions took place showcasing the work of the Swiss Learning Health System. Work presented during these sessions included, for example, the development of a policy brief and the conduct of a stakeholder dialogue on measuring overuse and underuse in Swiss general practice, rapid response syntheses on Ticino’s multi-hospital system facing the COVID-19 emergency, or on how to identify and engage with stakeholders in the Health2040 Research Project.

The public event ended with a very inspiring panel discussion about communicating science for decision-making. The audience appreciated the lively panel discussion that included the following panelists:

Mathis Brauchbar, Partner and Senior Consultant, advocacy AG
Gian-Andri Casutt, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, ETH-Rat, President European Association of Communication Professionals in Higher Education
Franziska Egli, Head of Communication and Deputy Secretary General, Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS)
Michaela Egli, Vice President Reatch - Research. Think. Change. Philosopher of Science/Medicine, University of Geneva
Mirjam Mäusezahl, Head of Section Infections Disease Epidemiology, Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)