The research unit of thePediatric Institute of Italian Switzerland is oriented toward clinical research in various fields of pediatrics.
The main areas of research are as follows:
- General pediatrics: systematic reviews of rare diseases or rare complications of frequent pediatric diseases.
- Cardiology and nephrology: projects on childhood hypertension and cardiovascular risk factors in young people, Swiss SPHC congenital heart disease registry and international Brugada Syndrome registry.
- Infectious diseases: participation in registries (MoCHIV, CITRUS) that analyze the prevalence of rare infectious diseases in childhood. A seroprevalence study of COVID-19 in the pediatric population was undertaken in 2020.
- Neuropediatrics: studies are underway on neurovascular disease, neuromuscular disease, rare diseases, neurodevelopment after high-risk birth (prematurity, perinatal asphyxia), traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, autism spectrum disorders, and cerebral palsy.
- Oncohematology: participation in several national and international cooperative study protocols as one of the nine Swiss centers of the Swiss Pediatric Oncology Group(SPOG) with the aim of promoting clinical research in pediatric oncology.
- Rheumatology: participation in international registries of inflammatory rheumatologic diseases.
- Pediatric surgery: interest in new protocols in minimally invasive surgery, orthopedics and trauma surgery.