Department of Clinical Research

Innenansicht des sitem-insel-Gebäudes

The Department serves as a central point of  expertise, innovation, leadership, contemporary pedagogy, offering modern pedagogical approaches, patient and public involvement programme and centralized facilities to support clinical researchers working closely with the Faculty of Medicine and the university hospitals of Bern.

To the DCR website

Director

Prof. Eva Segelov

Profile

  • We see clinical research as a collaborative, patient-centered, and methodologically rigorous process, generating evidence to improve healthcare.
  • DCR provides continuing education and professional development courses for clinicians, focusing on good clinical practice (GCP), statistics, grant writing and patient and public involvement (PPI) to strengthen research skills and leadership in clinical practice.
  • DCR lectures offer students and clinicians insight into core concepts and ongoing research in medicine.
  • Research spans clinical trial design, statistical methodology, digital health, translational medicine, and patient and public involvement, with a strong focus on innovation and methodological development.

Structure

The DCR brings together a diverse set of teams working across the full spectrum of clinical research. These includethe Clinical Trials Unit (CTU, with its divisionsClinical Study Management, Statistics & Methodology, Monitoring, Data Management & Quality Management, as well as the Clinical Investigation Unit (CIU), the Education team, the Patient and Public Involvement Program (PPI), the Segelov Research Group, Business Operations. Since 2025, the Department has been growing further with the development of the Medical Data Science Unit (MDS) and Clinical Trials Methodology (CTM) Unit and the planned integration of Gender Medicine will be the next addition.

External Partners

  • Inselspital and other Swiss University Hospitals
  • Sitem-insel
  • Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC)
  • Universitäre Psychiatrische Dienste Bern (UPD)
  • Members of the Swiss Clinical Trial Organization Network (SCTO)
  • Intiative Afrique World Health Organization (WHO)
  • Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)
  • Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz (GFCH)
  • Industry representatives

Grants

  • ENLIGHT Grant: Project TrialLearn
  • BRIDGE Grant: Project Mueller Matrix Poliarimetry
  • IICT Grant: Project EMPASTONE
  • IICT Grant: Project TITAN-PARADISE
  • DigiK UniBE: Project LLM4Humans - Empowering humans with local LLMs in research and clinical practice
  • DigiK UniBE: Project A Human-in-the-Loop approach to Clinical Decision Support in Radiation Oncology
  • SCTO Research on Research Grant: Project IMP-PACT DCT: The Investigational Medicinal Product – Practical Academic Clinical Trial Toolbox for Decentralizes Trials

Highlights 2025

DCR Symposia 2025: Day of Clinical Research & Global Health Clinical Research Day

The Department of Clinical Research hosted its third Day of Clinical Research at Inselspital and sitem-insel, bringing together clinical researchers across many disciplines. The event featured keynote lectures by Prof. Mervyn Singer and Prof. Lars Hemkens on sepsis and novel trial designs. Prof. Singer also participated in the Women in Clinical Research Lunch on 3 December, discussing career challenges for women in the field.The programme also included a poster walk and the Junior Research Showcase, held on 9 December, showcasing research in Clinical Studies and Imaging, led by Prof. Guido Beldi and Prof. Benjamin Victor Ineichen. The Junior Research Showcase highlighted innovative work through Pecha-Kucha-style presentations.

Five prize winners were awarded in the following categories: Best Poster Clinical Studies, Best Poster Imaging, Methodology and Technology, Best Oral Presentation – Completed Studies, Best Oral Presentation – Ongoing Studies, and Best Rapid Fire Presentation. We thank Alumni BE Bern for their contribution to the prizes. Approximately 80 people attended the event.

In addition, the DCR also co-organised the Global Health Clinical Research Day in collaboration with UPD and IFIK. The event aimed to raise awareness of critical health issues impacting people worldwide and brought together healthcare professionals, researchers, and students to showcase the latest advancements in clinical research. We were very pleased to welcome the keynote lecture by Prof. Alfred Njamnshi on brain health in Africa. Two prizes were awarded: one for Best Poster and one for Best Oral Presentation, both sponsored by the DCR and UPD. Event partners included Inselspital, UPD, IFIK, the World Psychiatric Association, Initiative Afrique. A total of around 60 people attended the event.

About the Day of Clinical Research on the DCR website

New Professorship for Medical Data Science

In 2025, Prof. Dr. Dr. Benjamin Ineichen joined the Department of Clinical Research (DCR) as Tenure Professor and established the Medical Data Science (MDS) Unit. Prof. Ineichen brings extensive experience in clinical research and data science. The MDS Unit develops innovative methods to analyze complex clinical and biomedical data, collaborating with clinicians, statisticians, and AI experts to advance precision medicine and improve patient care.

1) Structuring IDSC clinical data for research and clinical support

IDSC data are a rich source for clinical research and decision support, but large parts are unstructured, which limits reuse. We have started a collaboration with IDSC to curate these data and define clinical core outcome sets. The goal is to enable structured search, improved data curation, and a foundation for real-world data analyses. This work involves close collaboration with IDSC, including Prof. Lars Hemkens and Prof. Eva Segelov.

2) Understanding drug translation from animals to human regulatory approval

Drug development from animal studies to human use and regulatory approval is inefficient, and the determinants of successful approval are poorly understood. A PhD student in the STRIDE lab (Simona Doneva) has developed an AI-based interface, including LLMs, to mine and link drug development evidence from animal studies to clinical trials, with a focus on neuroscience. This provides a foundation for identifying patterns associated with drug failure versus regulatory approval.

Link: https://sed-stride-lab.shinyapps.io/a2h-explorer/

To the Medical Data Science DCR website

Welcoming first Masters, Doctoral Thesis and PhD Students to DCR

We are very pleased to have welcomed master’s students, doctoral thesis candidates, and PhD students to the DCR for the first time. This marks an important step in our academic expansion and transformation.