Network involving Kispi specialists explores improved detection of rare diseases
The Pediatric Personalized Research Network Switzerland (SwissPedHealth) is one of four National Data Stream (NDS) projects selected for joint funding by the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) and the the ETH focus area Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT).
This 5 million Swiss francs initiative has the goal to create joint structures to enable the collection of routine clinical data from Swiss children's hospitals, such as diagnosis and treatments, and make them available for research and clinical trials, as well as to inform health policies and quality improvement programs.
Researchers are applying multi-omics and artificial intelligence
SwissPedHealth includes a frontier lighthouse project to detect rare diseases in children with life-threatening conditions. The investigators will for the first time apply multi-omics, for instance the simultaneous analysis of genes, proteins, and metabolic markers in a patient and artificial intelligence to improve the detection of rare diseases in critically ill children. In addition, SwissPedHealth will investigate key questions related to child health, including childhood obesity, cancer, lung health and antibiotic prescription.
SwissPedHealth encompasses a network of experts in pediatrics, rare diseases, critical care, epidemiology, omics and computer science. It fosters a strong public and patient involvement to ensure that the program addresses key aspects from the family perspective.
Further information
Leaders
SwissPedHealth is led by Luregn Schlapbach (Kispi Zurich) and Julia Vogt (ETHZ).
The consortium
The consortium bridges clinical and scientific research as well as technical know-how from Swiss children's hospitals and institutions including CHUV - University of Lausanne (Eric Giannoni), HUG - University of Geneva (Klara Posfay-Barbe), Inselspital Bern - University of Bern (Philipp Latzin), Kispi Zurich - University of Zurich (Matthias Baumgartner, Sean Froese, Jana Pachlopnik Schmid), LUKS (Martin Stocker), Ostschweizer Kinderspital St. Gallen (Roger Lauener), UKBB – University of Basel (Julia Bielicki, Sven Schulzke), EPFL (Jacques Fellay), ETHZ (Karsten Borgwardt, Effy Vayena, Kelly Ormond), ETH PHRT-SMOC (Sandra Goetze, Patrick Pedrioli, Nicola Zamboni), Institute of Medical Genetics - University of Zurich (Anita Rauch), ISPM - University of Bern (Claudia Kuehni, Ben Spycher), as well as the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Christopher Forrest) as international collaborator.
This pediatric data stream will set up new and sustainable structures to allow high quality patient-focused research for Swiss children and their families.