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Background: Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumour in adults and driven by various genomic alterations. Next generation sequencing (NGS) provides timely information about the genetic landscape of tumours and might detect targetable mutations. To date, differences exist in the application and NGS assays used as it remains unclear to what extent these variants may affect clinical decision making. In this survey-based study, we investigated the use of NGS in adult patients with glioblastoma in Switzerland., Methods: All eight primary care centres for Neuro-Oncology in Switzerland participated in this survey. The NGS assays used as well as the criteria for the application of NGS in newly diagnosed glioblastoma were investigated. Decision trees were analysed for consensus and discrepancies using the objective consensus methodology., Results: Seven out of eight centres perform NGS in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma using custom made or commercially available assays. The criteria most relevant to decision making were age, suitability of standard treatment and fitness. NGS is most often used in fitter patients under the age of 60 years who are not suitable for standard therapy, while it is rarely performed in patients in poor general health., Conclusion: NGS is frequently applied in glioblastomas in adults in Neuro-Oncology centres in Switzerland despite seldom changing the course of treatment to date., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: This paper's purpose is to give an overview of current research regarding the concept of "health tourism" with a focus on Switzerland, and to determine whether a consensus on this concept and its embedding in existing/future markets can be found., Design/methodology/approach: The paper is an explorative study combining literature review, questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Grounded theory was employed., Findings: A service from the field of health care must have been provided prior to health tourism, allowing it to be classified under the health care system. Thus, health tourism is classified under the market for the sick and not under tourism which targets the healthy. Furthermore a new market for the healthy is emerging, which needs to be defined. As an example health(i)ness could help to clarify the terminology, to be seen as a gatekeeper of health and as a cultural paradigm change from cure to prevention., Research Limitations/implications: Further research is needed, regarding the positioning and development of health tourism and its synergies, as the cost pressures in health care increase and will continue to have a sustainable impact on health tourism., Practical Implications: The paper provides better knowledge of the term health tourism, its general classification, and particular reference to Switzerland, and information about upcoming changes in health care., Originality/value: The findings add to the knowledge of how health tourism is embedded into health care and tourism, and show potential within the market for the healthy. It provides information to members of the tourism and health care market.

In this article, the role of the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) at the University Hospital Insel in Bern, Switzerland, is described using four examples from daily practice. The first describes how the CNS may influence patient care by direct care, bedside teaching, or case reviews. Therefore, this form of co-operation with the nursing teams is a very important factor for improving nursing care. The second example is about wound care. Although the CNS work as generalists on the wards, they also have their specialist fields, where they have in-depth knowledge, skills and expertise. The third example describes how a CNS initiated an interprofessional working group with the aim of improving palliative care and palliative medicine throughout the hospital. Although such knowledge already existed in the hospital, it was not easily accessible to all the health care professionals. The fourth example is about project management. A CNS acted as a project leader of a multiprofessional group for pain assessment and management in babies, children and adolescents. This example also shows how a problem occurring in daily practice can be worked out and resolved.

Over a period of 26 months from January 1996 to February 1998, 388 foxes from the city of Zürich, Switzerland, were examined for intestinal infections with Echinococcus multilocularis and other helminths. The prevalence of E. multilocularis in foxes sampled during winter increased significantly from 47% in the urban to 67% in the adjacent recreational area, whereas prevalence rates of other helminths were similar in both areas. Seasonal differences in the prevalence of E. multilocularis were only found in urban subadult male foxes which were significantly less frequently infected in summer than in winter. The distribution of the Echinococcus biomass, as expressed by worm numbers per fox was overdispersed in 133 infected foxes randomly sampled in winter. Ten of these foxes (8%) were infected with more than 10,000 specimens and carried 72% of the total biomass of E. multilocularis (398,653 worms). Prevalences did not differ significantly in these foxes in regard to age and sex but worm burdens were significantly higher in subadult foxes as compared with adult foxes. In voles (Arvicola terrestris) trapped in a city park of Zürich, E. multilocularis metacestodes were identified by morphological examination and by PCR. The prevalence was 20% among 60 rodents in 1997 and 9% among 75 rodents in 1998. Protoscoleces occurred in 2 of the cases from 1997. The possible risk for human infection is discussed with respect to the established urban E. multilocularis cycle.