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Profile: Swiss School of Public Health, Zurich, Switzerland
World Report
Research Focus Profile: Swiss School of Public Health, Zurich, Switzerland
SSPH+
For the paper by Andreas Haas and colleagues see Lancet HIV 2016; 3: e175–82
SSPH+
Nino Künzli
Public Health Schweiz
Marcel Tanner
Public Health Schweiz
Andreas Haas
144
Switzerland is known for its ingenuity in making cheese, chocolate, and watches. 12 years ago, it applied its ingenuity to quite another activity— creating, in 2005, a school of public health designed to bolster public health education and research throughout the country. The school exists in a somewhat virtual state, with only one small office in Zurich. But it exists at the centre of a network of Swiss universities. The network started with six universities, and two more have joined since 2008, when the school became a foundation, acquired an official name, the Swiss School of Public Health, and an acronym (SSPH+), with its plus sign denoting the added value of a network-based school compared with a traditional freestanding school. The eight universities that have signed onto the SSPH+ foundation are those of Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano, Neuchâtel, and Zurich. What prompted the creation of such an institution? Nino Künzli, dean of the school, explains: “Switzerland’s public health has been traditionally weak. An SSPH+ study found that only a third of Swiss public health workers have had formal training in public health. Public health is an interdisciplinary research topic and has been on the sidelines of the courses given by Swiss universities on the more selfcontained topics, such as economics, biology, pharmacology, medicine, and so on. Starting in the 1980s, a group of Swiss university professors decided to bring public health research onto an equal footing with the other university disciplines. There was little chance that our federal government, with 26 uniquely different cantons to cope with, would create a single, strong public health research faculty. Creating a relatively low-cost but high-excellence faculty encompassing several universities seemed to be the
obvious solution. The SSPH+ was thus born to create a critical mass powerful enough to strengthen the country’s public health system. As it has turned out, the school has indeed produced a critical mass that no single Swiss university could have achieved.” Not everything about the SSPH+ is virtual. The school’s strategic decisions are made by a board consisting of representatives of the eight universities and currently chaired by Marcel Tanner, president of the Swiss Academy of Sciences and co-founder of the SSPH+. The day-to-day running of the school and its links with the universities are the tasks of a directorate comprising a dean, two deputy deans, and a small secretariat. Overseeing the teaching functions of the school are 130 faculty members, mostly professors from the eight universities. Of the 30 public health programmes run by the SSPH+, the school’s PhD programme in public health is its largest. Some 160 PhD students are currently enrolled and are being taught the main public health disciplines, including epidemiology, health system research, disease prevention, global health, health-care management, social sciences, and biostatistics. A successful student receives an SSPH+ PhD certificate in addition to the PhD degree awarded by one of the partner universities. “These courses have given me a lot of expert skills”, Andreas Haas, a postdoctoral research fellow in epidemiology at the University of Bern and former SSPH+ PhD student, tells The Lancet. “Thanks to the school’s network of major universities the courses are able to cover a very broad interdisciplinary portfolio that no single university could provide.” On Nov 15, 2016, Haas received the annual SSPH+ award for the best published PhD article in public
health. His research, published in The Lancet HIV in March, 2016, assessed retention in care in Malawi’s option B+ programme for HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women. An assistant professor programme is also high on Künzli’s list of the school’s achievements. “SSPH+ is funding 14 assistant professor posts”, he says, “and many of our assistant professors have taken up full professor positions in Swiss universities, thereby filling gaps in the country’s public health research, teaching, and practice.” Postgraduate students give high marks to the SSPH+ seasonal schools held in summer and winter in various Swiss locations. Vanessa Simic, an obesity researcher at Université Laval in Canada, attended this year’s SSPH+ summer school in Lugano. “What surprised me most”, she says, “was the quality of the teaching, the diversity of the topics covered, and the opportunity to meet students working on a wide range of public health issues. I acquired skills that I can definitely use in my work. I also enjoyed the social events and local sightseeing outings. The downside was the air travel costs from and to Canada. But it was worth the expense.” Money is also an issue for the SSPH+. Over the 12 years since its inception the school has received CHF30 million (£23 million) in federal funding under an agreement that this funding would end after 12 years. The time is up, and the SSPH+ board has decided to request each of its partner universities to pay an SSPH+ membership fee. “The universities”, Künst says, “have started to respond very positively. The school has become an academic public health focal point and we have ambitious plans for the future. The SSPH+ cannot stop now.”
John Maurice www.thelancet.com Vol 389 January 14, 2017
Research Focus Profile: Swiss School of Public Health, Zurich, Switzerland
SSPH+
For the paper by Andreas Haas and colleagues see Lancet HIV 2016; 3: e175–82
SSPH+
Nino Künzli
Public Health Schweiz
Marcel Tanner
Public Health Schweiz
Andreas Haas
144
Switzerland is known for its ingenuity in making cheese, chocolate, and watches. 12 years ago, it applied its ingenuity to quite another activity— creating, in 2005, a school of public health designed to bolster public health education and research throughout the country. The school exists in a somewhat virtual state, with only one small office in Zurich. But it exists at the centre of a network of Swiss universities. The network started with six universities, and two more have joined since 2008, when the school became a foundation, acquired an official name, the Swiss School of Public Health, and an acronym (SSPH+), with its plus sign denoting the added value of a network-based school compared with a traditional freestanding school. The eight universities that have signed onto the SSPH+ foundation are those of Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano, Neuchâtel, and Zurich. What prompted the creation of such an institution? Nino Künzli, dean of the school, explains: “Switzerland’s public health has been traditionally weak. An SSPH+ study found that only a third of Swiss public health workers have had formal training in public health. Public health is an interdisciplinary research topic and has been on the sidelines of the courses given by Swiss universities on the more selfcontained topics, such as economics, biology, pharmacology, medicine, and so on. Starting in the 1980s, a group of Swiss university professors decided to bring public health research onto an equal footing with the other university disciplines. There was little chance that our federal government, with 26 uniquely different cantons to cope with, would create a single, strong public health research faculty. Creating a relatively low-cost but high-excellence faculty encompassing several universities seemed to be the
obvious solution. The SSPH+ was thus born to create a critical mass powerful enough to strengthen the country’s public health system. As it has turned out, the school has indeed produced a critical mass that no single Swiss university could have achieved.” Not everything about the SSPH+ is virtual. The school’s strategic decisions are made by a board consisting of representatives of the eight universities and currently chaired by Marcel Tanner, president of the Swiss Academy of Sciences and co-founder of the SSPH+. The day-to-day running of the school and its links with the universities are the tasks of a directorate comprising a dean, two deputy deans, and a small secretariat. Overseeing the teaching functions of the school are 130 faculty members, mostly professors from the eight universities. Of the 30 public health programmes run by the SSPH+, the school’s PhD programme in public health is its largest. Some 160 PhD students are currently enrolled and are being taught the main public health disciplines, including epidemiology, health system research, disease prevention, global health, health-care management, social sciences, and biostatistics. A successful student receives an SSPH+ PhD certificate in addition to the PhD degree awarded by one of the partner universities. “These courses have given me a lot of expert skills”, Andreas Haas, a postdoctoral research fellow in epidemiology at the University of Bern and former SSPH+ PhD student, tells The Lancet. “Thanks to the school’s network of major universities the courses are able to cover a very broad interdisciplinary portfolio that no single university could provide.” On Nov 15, 2016, Haas received the annual SSPH+ award for the best published PhD article in public
health. His research, published in The Lancet HIV in March, 2016, assessed retention in care in Malawi’s option B+ programme for HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women. An assistant professor programme is also high on Künzli’s list of the school’s achievements. “SSPH+ is funding 14 assistant professor posts”, he says, “and many of our assistant professors have taken up full professor positions in Swiss universities, thereby filling gaps in the country’s public health research, teaching, and practice.” Postgraduate students give high marks to the SSPH+ seasonal schools held in summer and winter in various Swiss locations. Vanessa Simic, an obesity researcher at Université Laval in Canada, attended this year’s SSPH+ summer school in Lugano. “What surprised me most”, she says, “was the quality of the teaching, the diversity of the topics covered, and the opportunity to meet students working on a wide range of public health issues. I acquired skills that I can definitely use in my work. I also enjoyed the social events and local sightseeing outings. The downside was the air travel costs from and to Canada. But it was worth the expense.” Money is also an issue for the SSPH+. Over the 12 years since its inception the school has received CHF30 million (£23 million) in federal funding under an agreement that this funding would end after 12 years. The time is up, and the SSPH+ board has decided to request each of its partner universities to pay an SSPH+ membership fee. “The universities”, Künst says, “have started to respond very positively. The school has become an academic public health focal point and we have ambitious plans for the future. The SSPH+ cannot stop now.”
John Maurice www.thelancet.com Vol 389 January 14, 2017