Range of services

Healthcare services are at their most effective where they correspond to the needs and demands of the individuals who use them. This can be achieved by involving those individuals in the development of services rather than simply developing services for them.
We systematically encourage the active participation of users of the healthcare system: We involve carerss who act as carers in research projects, integrate people with experience of medical conditions into training and continuing education programmes and encourage health professionals to develop the skills to engage with users on an equal footing.

Identifying problems, setting priorities and cooperating on the development and implementation of solutions

When we talk about active participation, we mean that the needs of users are consistently integrated into the development of healthcare services but also, above all, that the users identify problems, set priorities and cooperate on the development and implementation of solutions. We are committed to ensuring that users are not only heard but are involved in discussions, developments and decision-making. The participatory approach reinforces our strategy of developing sustainable models of prevention, treatment and care and translating them into practice.

Unique in Switzerland

Taking account of different viewpoints results in more effective solutions. This is an approach that also applies in healthcare provision. The expertise of trained professionals is indispensable, but the expertise of users is also relevant, and the combination of these different forms of expertise is highly productive. Including users in the development of new models for healthcare provision is already an established practice in other countries – in Switzerland, this approach is new. Our competence centre therefore has the potential to take applied research and teaching in the field of health in an innovative direction and to establish unique expertise in the German-speaking area. In doing so, we are also mirroring the Federal Council’s 2020–2030 health policy strategy.

• Our aim in actively involving users of the healthcare system in our research is to ensure effective healthcare provision and health promotion for all stakeholders. By adopting this approach, we are playing a key role in bringing about accessible, efficient and high-quality treatment, support, care and prevention.
• Together with practice partners, we are developing and implementing innovative models and processes to enable users to participate in and help determine healthcare provision and health promotion. We are working to evolve existing models and approaches.
• We promote and evaluate new roles for academically trained and educated health professionals (e.g. advanced practice, interprofessional case management, etc.) and users of the healthcare system (e.g. peer-to-peer consultation for patients or their carers). To achieve this, we offer interprofessional and transdisciplinary experimentation and learning areas and specifically encourage health professionals to collaborate among themselves and with users.
• We play a significant role in enabling and empowering users and health professionals when it comes to designing and implementing the participatory provision of care in day-to-day practice, promoting the users’ health expertise and sensitising health professionals to their concerns. As a result, we are improving the abilities of all involved in the process of shared decision-making in all divisions at BFH Health Professions.
• We encourage the inclusion of users of the healthcare system in health-related decision-making processes; in other words, not only in the treatment of individuals but also in the identification of problems and the fundamental optimisation of healthcare provision.
• We offer continuing education programmes to implement participatory processes in healthcare, encouraging their integration into healthcare provision.
• We promote research and the development of new, practice-relevant transfer, teaching and learning methodologies within the disciplines and across the professions and departments of BFH.