Prof. Dr. et phil. Milo Puhan is an internationally recognized epidemiologist whose contributions to the evidence base for population health center around two main themes:

Methods development for personalized decision-making and quantitative benefit harm determination in chronic disease prevention and treatment. He is a principal investigator (PI) of the large, interdisciplinary study From single disease reductionist research to informed Machine Learning: a new research paradigm for multimorbidity (Swiss National Science Foundation: 216636). Prof. Puhan also leads  the Swiss Integrated Care (INCA) cohort study as PI. This first-of-its-kind large cohort study is comprised of adults receiving informal care from a family member who are trained, assisted, and paid by home care institutions. This cohort allows for real-time and longitudinal investigations of this new model of home-based, long-term care, and  examines research questions around multimorbidity. Prof. Puhan is PI of the Swiss MS Registry, which includes more than 2,500 adult participants diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. A longitudinal, citizen science study, the registry collects data directly from persons with MS and their close others on topics including quality of life, nutrition, physical activity, treatments, transition to older age and multimorbidity. This novel, digitally-enhanced approach to person-centered research ensures perspectives of persons with multiple sclerosis are included.

In 2023, he launched, together with colleagues from the UZH faculties of Medicine and Arts and Social Sciences, the UZH Population Research Center (PRC), a joint interdisciplinary initiative. The UZH PRC provides an efficient, collaborative and integrated scientific platform for interdisciplinary, representative, population-based research in health and social sciences to benefit the public and inform policymakers. 

Mobilizing high-quality, rapid responses to urgent, population-level crises. In 2020, together with colleagues from the Swiss School of Public Health, Prof. Puhan founded and led the Corona Immunitas Initiative. Corona Immunitas harmonized over 40 studies at 14 Swiss universities with over 50,000 participants to determine the SARS-CoV-2 immunity of the general population, school children, and vulnerable groups at high risk of infection. Until 2023, Corona Immunitas generated over 64  scientific papers and 300 media reports informing citizens and the scientific community about the situation. A nonpartisan political advisory board served as mediaries between program leaders and the specific data and evidence needs of Swiss politicians to inform decision making.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Prof. Puhan initiated the Mental Health Assessment of the Population (MAP) study surveilling the mental health status of the Ukrainian population as well as refugees to Switzerland. Another international, multi-stakeholder effort implements a Learning Health System for innovative, community-based mental health care delivery in Ukraine (Swiss National Science Foundation: 224797) in connection with the flagship, multi-year Swiss commitment to strengthen capacity and resilience of the mental health system in Ukraine (Mental Health for Ukraine; MH4U).

Prof. Puhan serves as president of the Swiss School of Public Health and is director of  the PhD program in Epidemiology & Biostatistics of the Life Science Zurich Graduate School. Until 2023, he was the president of the National Research Program 74 Smarter Health Care of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Thanks to its success and together with the Swiss Learning Health System (2017-2025) the National Research Program 74 builds the basis for the Smarter Health Care network, which connects researchers, politicians, and practitioners and is embedded in the Swiss School of Public Health. Prof. Puhan is president of the Federal Commission on Issues Related to Sexually Transmitted Infections (FCSTI). He co-leads the public health cluster for the scientific advisory body that directly advises the federal council and federal administrators in times of crises.

Prior to his appointment as chair of Epidemiology and Public Health Department and director of the EBPI (2013) he was a tenure track Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA. Milo Puhan earned his medical degree at the University of Zurich and his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Prof. Puhan was elected to the Senate of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences in 2022 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lucerne in 2024.

ORCID Researcher ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4721-1879

Milo Puhan in PubMed

• CoVICIS: EU-Africa Concerted Action on SARS-CoV-2
• Digital Health Innovation: a Governance Roadmap for Switzerland (D-GOVmap)
• Establishing a Swiss National Lung Cancer Screening Program

• From single disease reductionist research to informed Machine Learning: A new research paradigm for multimorbidity

• Health Technology Assessments for the Swiss Medical Board

• Mobilise-D: Connecting digital mobility assessment to clinical outcomes for regulatory and clinical endorsement
• Patient Preferences Regarding Benefits and Harms of Advanced Prostate Cancer Treatments in Switzerland
• Peri-Operative Outcome Research
• Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and development of immunity in the Swiss population – Population-based observational studies to inform policy making (CORONA IMMUNITAS)
• SwissDEM
• Zurich SARS-CoV-2 Cohort: Towards a long-term control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission – Identifying the epidemiological, immunological and viral genetic drivers of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and pathogenesis in a representative population-based cohort

• Benefit-harm assessments to inform patient-centered care for older people with multiple chronic conditions
• CAPACITY: Community approach to increase physical activity in older adults
• Cochrane Public Health Europe
• Natural history of lung cancer in Switzerland and
  cost-effectiveness of low-dose computed tomography
• PCORI: Benefit harm assessment methods for guidelines
• PRO-active - Physical Activity as a Crucial Patient Reported Outcome in COPD
• SELFIS project: Implementation evaluation of the LWWCOPD program
• Zurich Health Policy Center