Shaping the Future of Medicine: USB Innovation Focus
As one of Switzerland’s leading university hospitals, University Hospital Basel (USB) is committed to advancing medical innovation and transforming patient care. Through its USB Innovation Focus initiative, the hospital defines interdisciplinary priority areas on a regular basis, bringing together renowned experts from clinical practice, research, and technology development.
The aim is to drive meaningful advances in medicine, strengthen USB’s national and international visibility as a center of excellence, and create tangible benefits for patients through innovative approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and care.
Closed-Loop Ecosystem for Personalized Surgical Care
The Innovation Focus Digital Precision Surgery integrates advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, medical imaging, and 3D printing into a seamless digital treatment pathway. This creates a learning ecosystem that connects the entire clinical journey – from diagnosis and surgical planning to treatment and follow-up care. By continuously integrating data, processes, and outcomes, surgical interventions become more precise, safer, and increasingly personalized.
Testing Therapies on Tumor Cells Before Treatment
By combining patient-derived tumor models, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence, the Innovation Focus Personalized Cancer Therapy creates new opportunities to identify effective treatments more rapidly and tailor therapeutic strategies to the individual needs of each patient. The goal is to improve clinical decision-making and increase the likelihood of successful cancer treatment through a more personalized approach to oncology.
Digital Precision Medicine at USB
The Innovation Focus Medical AI brings together medical data, digital workflows, and artificial intelligence to support physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals in diagnosis, treatment decisions, and clinical processes. Its objective is to enable more precise, efficient, and personalized care for patients while supporting healthcare professionals in their daily clinical practice.
Innovation Focus Areas 2020–2025
Between 2020 and 2025, significant progress was achieved across five strategic innovation priorities.
For example, the Innovation Focus on Gender Variance established a unique interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary center that is unparalleled in Switzerland. The new Innovation Focus Digital Precision Surgery builds upon developments from the earlier focus areas Regenerative Surgery and Pediatric Neurosurgery, both of which achieved notable advances in patient-specific 3D-printed implants and the treatment of cleft lip and palate conditions in newborns.
The Innovation Focus Cell Therapies enabled more than 120 patients to receive innovative cell-based treatments, introduced several therapies for the first time in Switzerland, and laid the foundation for today’s University Center for Cell Therapy and Immunomodulation (UZTI).
Further information on the USB Innovation Focus areas from 2020 to 2025 and their achievements can be found here.