About the project

Alfred Angerer

Prof. Dr. Alfred Angerer is one of the two heads of the SHIFT flagship and manager of Pillar D. He is a lecturer at the ZHAW School of Management and Law, where he acts as a healthcare industry representative. He heads the “Management in Healthcare” department at the Winterthur Institute of Health Economics. As a consultant and coach, he supports numerous organizations in the Swiss healthcare sector in the areas of operations and strategy. His research projects focus on process optimization (lean healthcare), organizational development and digital health.

Sven Hirsch

Prof. Dr. Sven Hirsch is one of the two heads of the SHIFT flagship. He is a lecturer at the Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management at the ZHAW and heads the Computational Health Research Center at the Institute of Computational Life Sciences. In his research, he uses artificial intelligence to analyze a wide range of medical data and simulate physiological processes in the human body. This enables him to discover complex interactions between diseases, develop new diagnostic methods and ultimately improve patient care. He is the founding director of the ZHAW Digital Health Lab and a driving force behind the digitalization of the Swiss healthcare system

Christian Russ

Dr. Christian Russ is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar A. He teaches and researches digital health, enterprise IT models, IT value management and governance at the ZHAW. He is head of studies of the MAS “IT Leadership and TechManagement” and head of the Digital Business Leader Network of the ZHAW School of Management and Law. He is also a member of the ZHAW Digital Health Lab and the swissICT eHealth working group. Spin-off of an IT spin-off of the university and development of award-winning software products in the field of AI expert systems and knowledge management. Regular project reviewer and reviewer of EU Horizon projects and startup coach in the tech sector.

Samuel Wehrli

Dr. Samuel Wehrli is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar B. He holds a doctorate in physics and is a lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Computational Life Sciences. With many years of industrial experience in sensor technology and data science, he leads applied innovation projects at the intersection of research, technology and clinical practice.

Marcela Ruiz

Dr. Marcela Ruiz is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar C. She is a lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering in the Institute for Applied Information Technology InIT. She is deputy head of the Software Engineering research group and leads research projects with industry partners in the field of software production and automation of the software development lifecycle. She supports companies and researchers in the application of software production methods for digital transformation and innovation.

Jens Eckstein

Prof. Dr. Dr. Jens Eckstein is the medical director of SHIFT. He is a senior physician and Chief Medical Information Officer at the University Hospital Basel. In addition to his clinical work as an internist and cardiologist, he heads innovation management and a research group focusing on mobile sensors (wearables). His multidisciplinary team supports internal and external research projects on applied e-health topics, conducts clinical studies and is responsible for the content on digital medicine in the curriculum of the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel. Together, they host a Future Friday for innovation projects twice a year and organize the Basel Digital Ethics Symposium once a year.

Johanna Stahl

As coordinator of SHIFT, Johanna Stahl is responsible for the operational management of the flagship. She is a research assistant at the ZHAW School of Management and Law in the “Management in Healthcare” department of the Winterthur Institute of Health Economics. As a qualified psychologist, she supports organizations in the Swiss healthcare sector, focusing on organizational development and has focused her research on lean healthcare and digital health.

A.1: Christian Russ

Dr. Christian Russ is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar A and Head of A.1. He teaches and researches in the field of digital health, enterprise IT models, IT value management and governance at the ZHAW. He is head of studies of the MAS “IT Leadership and TechManagement” and head of the Digital Business Leader Network of the ZHAW School of Management and Law. He is also a member of the ZHAW Digital Health Lab and the swissICT eHealth working group.Spin-off of an IT spin-off of the university and development of award-winning software products in the field of AI expert systems and knowledge management. Regular project reviewer and reviewer of EU Horizon projects and startup coach in the tech sector.

B.1: Maren Leifke

Maren Leifke is taking over the management of B.1 as part of SHIFT. At the University Hospital Basel, she works in innovation management under the direction of Jens Eckstein. She focuses on supporting application-oriented research projects in the field of digital health and incorporates her many years of therapeutic experience in the fields of sports science and speech therapy.

B.1 und B.2: Samuel Wehrli

Dr. Samuel Wehrli is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar B and Head of B.1 and B.2. He holds a doctorate in physics and is a lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Computational Life Sciences. He heads the Biosignal Analysis and Digital Heatlh group. With many years of industrial experience in sensor technology and data science, he leads applied innovation projects at the intersection of research, technology and clinical practice.

B.2: Joris Kirchberger

Joris Kirchberger is taking over the management of B.2 as part of SHIFT. He is an expert in the field of physiotherapy and applied movement research. After completing his bachelor's degree in physiotherapy in 2018, he deepened his expertise with a master's degree in sports science with a focus on applied movement research at the University of Fribourg. Since 2021, he has been working at the University Hospital Basel as a research assistant and practice developer in therapy. In this role, he leads the SHIFT project B2 - “Hospital in Motion”, which focuses on recording patient activity using wearable technology. In addition, he is co-leader of the “Hospital in Motion” interest group within the IGPTR-A, with the aim of raising awareness of the relevance of patient mobility in the hospital environment.

B.3: Susanne Suter

Prof. Dr. Susanne Suter, head of the sub-project SHIFT B.3 “Hospital @ Home: Pilot Study” and lecturer for Data Science at the Institute for Data Science at the FHNW, has several years of experience in industry and applied research. As head of the specialist group 'Vision and Sensor Data (VISED)', she uses her expertise in the areas of image processing, 2D and 3D data visualization and sensor data analysis, using classical methods as well as artificial intelligence, especially deep learning. She specializes in semantic segmentation and object recognition in medical technology applications.

C.1: Elke Brucker-Kley

Elke Brucker-Kley is co-leading the project C.1- “Improved self-management with virtual reality companions” together with Thomas Keller as part of Shift. As co-head of the “People & Technology” department at the Institute of Information Systems at the ZHAW School of Management and Law, she teaches and researches the social impact of technologies. Her current research focuses on the application of extended reality in the areas of health and learning. In her applied and interdisciplinary R&D projects, she contributes her social science background as an information scientist as well as many years of industry experience in the field of technology & innovation.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Keller is co-leading the project C1- “Improved Self-Management with Virtual Reality Companions” within Shift. He studied electrical engineering at ETH Zurich and holds a doctorate in business informatics from the University of Zurich. After working for many years in the rail vehicle industry, he established the Institute for Information Systems at the ZHAW in 2003. His applied research specializes in virtual and augmented reality, process automation and the application of new technologies in business contexts as well as in schools and for people with disabilities.

C.2: Michael Krauthammer

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Krauthammer leads SHIFT C.2 and is also head of the Medical Informatics Group at the University of Zurich. After studying medicine at the University of Zurich, he earned his doctorate in biomedical informatics at Columbia University in New York. He then joined the Yale University School of Medicine, where he led a research team in biomedical informatics and worked on fundamental aspects of cancer genetics. Since 2018, he has been back in Zurich to establish a group (KrauthammerLab) in medical informatics.

C.3: Marcela Ruiz

Dr. Marcela Ruiz is the SHIFT Manager of Pillar C and Head of C.3. She is a lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering in the Institute for Applied Information Technology InIT. She is deputy head of the Software Engineering research group and leads research projects with industry partners in the area of software production and automation of the software development lifecycle. She supports companies and researchers in the application of software production methods for digital transformation and innovation.

D.1 und D.4: Alfred Angerer

Prof. Dr. Alfred Angerer is one of the two heads of the SHIFT flagship and manager of Pillar D - as well as head of D.1 and D.4. He is a lecturer at the ZHAW School of Management and Law, where he acts as a healthcare industry representative. He heads the “Management in Healthcare” department at the Winterthur Institute of Health Economics. As a consultant and coach, he supports numerous organizations in the Swiss healthcare sector in the areas of operations and strategy. His research projects focus on process optimization (lean healthcare), organizational development and digital health.

D.2: Martin Feuz

Dr. Martin Feuz is head of the flagship SHIFT subproject D.2. He is a lecturer, researcher and management consultant at the ZHAW School of Management and Law at the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He leads several research projects in the field of evidence-based innovation and impact. As a consultant, he supports numerous organizations in the Swiss economy in the area of innovation and product management.

D.3: Florian Liberatore

PD Dr. Florian Liberatore is taking over the management of D.3 as part of SHIFT. He is deputy head of the Healthcare Management Unit at the Winterthur Institute of Health Economics at zhaw. He heads the sub-project “D.3: Demand-oriented flexible staff capacity management in hospitals” in the SHIFT flagship project. He is a representative of a new business management approach in the healthcare sector - the “New Healthcare Management”, which is about sustainable management systems that achieve financial success through quality and employee/patient centricity. In his research, consulting and teaching activities, he focuses on capacity management systems in hospitals, flexible working models, value-based healthcare and quality development.  

Christoph Tyssen

Christoph Tyssen is Program Manager at Helsana Insurance Ltd, the leading health and accident insurer in Switzerland with 2.2 million insured persons and premium income of CHF 7.4 billion. Christoph is responsible for projects in the area of digitalization and business development. This currently includes the topic of Compassana, a healthcare ecosystem in which Helsana is invested. Previously, he was head of innovation and customer experience at SBB Passenger Transport. He holds a degree in industrial engineering (KIT) and a doctorate in Business Innovation / Supply Chain Management from the University of St. Gallen.

Corinne Dive-Reclus

Corinne Dive-Reclus is Global Head of Lab Insights for Roche Information Solutions (RIS) at Roche. Previously, she led business development for a business unit at Roche Diagnostics and was responsible for identifying new market segments, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate collaborations. She joined Roche in 2013 as Head of Software Engineering, where she was responsible for more than 30 diagnostics products and led a department of 500 engineers across 4 sites. Prior to joining Roche, she worked in cybersecurity, cell phones and publishing. 

Lukas Wenger

Lukas Wenger is a Senior Consultant at BINT GmbH in Winterthur and is involved in the design and integration of eHealth solutions. Previously, he built up the eHealth division at an organization for GP networks and, together with partners, implemented digital tools for diagnostics and therapy support in the context of integrated GP care. His earlier career is characterized by mandates for digital transformation in banking, insurance, public administration, international trade, ICT outsourcing and telecommunications. As a start-up manager, he developed an integrated software solution for outpatient care services. He has completed a CAS Management Strategies & Methods. He originally studied history and classical archaeology.

Maximilian Grimm

Maximilian Grimm is Head of Health Innovation at the Hub at Baden Cantonal Hospital, where he is responsible for a portfolio of seed investments in addition to various strategic projects on the question of what the hospital of the future will look like. He is also doing a doctorate at ETH Zurich on the subject of health data. He is co-founder of the start-up NAHhaft and was previously a strategy consultant with a focus on innovation.

Michael Dahlweid

Michael Dahlweid is a trauma surgeon and has further degrees in management, computer science and innovation. Today he is on the board of Dedalus as Global Chief Product & Clinical Officer and has a successful career in the healthcare software and technology industry. His academic interests are in the concrete digitalization of healthcare - with a focus on working AI models and ML/DL applications in medicine.

Nikola Biller-Andorno, MHBA

Nikola Biller-Andorno is Director of the Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Zurich, where she studied ethical issues relating to the digitalization of health as part of a Careum/Harkness Fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund at Harvard University and was able to explore the topic in greater depth as a Fellow at Collegium Helveticum from 2016 to 2020. Prof. Biller-Andorno is currently Vice Dean of Innovation and Digitalization at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zurich. She is also a member of UZH's Digital Society Initiative and co-director of the Digital Health Design Living Lab, which was newly approved as part of the DIZH. In 2022, she was appointed to the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, which advises the European Commission.

Reinhold Sojer

Reinhold Sojer heads the Digitalization / eHealth department of the Swiss Medical Association FMH. After studying computer science, he worked as a scientist and lecturer in medical informatics and then as a consultant in the healthcare sector. At the Federal Office of Public Health, he helped shape the implementing legislation for the electronic patient dossier and planned the development of central services. In his current position, he deals extensively with the secure handling of health data and the impact of digitalization on the medical profession.

Serge Bignens

Serge Bignens is a professor at BFH and heads the Institute of Medical Informatics. He is active as an Innosuisse Expert, board member of the Swiss Society for Medical Informatics, founding and board member of the ch++ association, board member of the MIDATA cooperative and of Swiss Cancer Screening. His research interests include personal data management and governance, mobile health apps and semantic interoperability.

Stephan Kunz

Stephan Kunz is a member of the Executive Board of Spital Thurgau and the thurmed Group. After 14 years as Hospital Director of Münsterlingen Cantonal Hospital and Administrative Director of Psychiatric Services, he will take on the newly created role of CTIO (Chief Technology and Innovation Officer) from Oct 2022 and is Chairman or a member of several thurmed boards of directors. In addition to degrees from the Lausanne Hotel Management School and as a business economist, he holds an MBA in international hospital management.