The Future of Swiss Medicine

For almost ten years the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) has looked upon the project , «The Future of Swiss Medicine», as one of its central activities.

In a first phase of this project («Preparation») dozens of specialists from the fields of medicine, economics, ethics and politics gathered together material on the prsent status of medicine, defined particular problem areas and proposed solutions. In parallel to this, on behalf of the SAMS the GfS Research Institute in Berne carried out a poll among the general population on the subject, «What is expected of Medicine?».

In a second phase («Concretisation») a group of experts drew up a report on the subject «Aims and tasks of medicine at the beginning of the 21st century».

The «forum» which took place in Berne in mid-December 2004 represented the start of Phase III of the project («Implementation»). Four areas, which the report described as central, have since been further worked on:

The future need for medical persons, in view of the demographic development
Job identities and job descriptions
Instruction and further training in patient safety and the medical-error culture
Rationing

While a large symposium on the first subject was held in Berne in June 2006, in the late autumn of 2007 noteworthy reports appeared on the other three subjects, on which symposia have also been, or are being, held.