Prof. Heiner C. Bucher is a clinical epidemiologist at the Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel and board certified internist with appointments at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Hygiene, University Hospital Basel. He received his clinical training at the University Hospital Basel and other clinics in Switzerland and training in epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and in clinical epidemiology at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Prof. Bucher has a long standing experience in HIV research where he has conducted numerous studies using large scale observational data and data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. In addition he has conducted several trials in primary care with the goal to optimize the use of antibiotics in respiratory tract infections. He has been involved in over 100 meta-analyses using direct and indirect comparisons and individual patient data meta-analyses to investigate the effectiveness of medical interventions in clinical trials. He has been very active in comparative effectiveness research using large scale routinely collected data and by designing innovative interventions in primary care with the use of pragmatic clinical trials. Prof. Bucher has also been very active in Health Technology Assessments (HTA) in Switzerland and Germany. He has contributed the first and widely used method on indirect comparison (Bucher method) to the field of HTA. He has also been involved in methodological research, examining reasons for discontinuation of clinical trials and more recently in investigating the effectiveness of drugs with accelerated approval or of off-label drug use.

Implementation of evidence-based medicine in clinical care to improve patient relevant outcomes. Applied research in infectious diseases to improve the use of antibiotics in primary care and patient outcome in patients with HIV infection. Comparative effectiveness research with use routinely collected data.