ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

About Us

The ARTORG Center as engineering department within a medical faculty is unique in Europe. At its founding 2008 as one of the University of Bern’s Centers of Excellence organizational links to various deparments of Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, were established that still fuel our innovations today. Our translational strategy seeks to convert ARTORG research into new treatments through a deep commitment to specific clinical focus areas.

Browse this section to learn about or vision, the way we drive clinical innovation, our educational focus and our network.

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Vision

Mission & Vision

Patient benefit is our motivation and the courage of patients is our inspiration

Mission: We envision future challenges in healthcare and move fundamental inquiries into biomedical technology into clinical adoption with imagination, agility and purpose.

Vision: Enable clinical personnel to deliver improved and personalized patient care and create patient benefit through user-friendly state-of-the-art healthcare technology for prevention, diagnostics, therapy and rehabilitation within an average 10-year technology development horizon.

Societal Impact: ARTORG supports society and its healthcare system for the challenges to come (demographic, economic, socio-cultural) by the enhancement and integration of novel technology, improving its availability for patients and medical indications and demonstrating its clinical benefit.

Innovation

Innovation

Together with the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, ARTORG creates the medical technology hub of Switzerland's capital. ARTORG has been delivering over a decade of ambitious biomedical engineering research, teaching and development across a wide variety of clinical areas, today represented in twelve independent research groups.

We leverage dedicated medical and technological expertise through close collaboration with our clinical partners and develop revolutionary approaches we translate into new medical devices. The bandwidth of our research ranges from answering novel clinical challenges to improving existing approaches and medical technology with competences from pure algorithmic developments across component and systems development all the way to clinical validation.

 

Find further insights into our innovation portfolio including details for each of our specialized groups under Research.

Education

Education

The seamless integration of the education and training of the next generation of biomedical engineers into ARTORG’s projects, exposes researchers at all levels to the entire pathway for biomedical engineering applications: from discovery, research, development to clinical translation. Collaborative projects of postgraduate students from technical and clinical backgrounds with our clinical partners move their research activities between the laboratory setting and the operating rooms, to find solutions that are informed by clinical practice. 

 

For more on our educational programs visit Studies.

Translational strategy

Translational strategy

Activities at the ARTORG Center span the arc from basic research enquiry into biomedical engineering domains to clinical introduction of novel technologies and procedures.

Translation into clinical care means fundamental changes in the way disruptive technology is deployed to deliver better diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitation and chronic condition management outcomes. Projects at the ARTORG are designed and pursued to achieve the goal of clinical translation.

Since its founding more than 10 years ago, the ARTORG Center has built a track record of successful commercial exploitation of innovative research results. A number of University of Bern spin-offs have acquired rights to technology intellectual property, including patents, know-how, models and clinical data. These companies have matured into commercial success, attracting researchers from the ARTORG and Inselspital, investors and high-caliber management teams and becoming revenue positive with CE/FDA approved Medtech products now found in hospitals across the globe. The ARTORG Center places great emphasis on supporting a sustainable pipeline of commercial venturing activities, from spin-offs to licensing and partnering.

 

ARTORG Spin-offs:

  • Alveolix AG, Lung-on-a-chip
  • CAScination AG, Image-guided and robotic surgery for precision medicine applications
  • LEM Surgical, Next generation robotics
  • PeriVision SA, Helping Eye Doctors Save Vision with AI, VR and the cloud
  • RetinAI AG, Deep learning for big data use in therapeutic decision making
  • SurgeonsLab, 4D simulation for microsurgical training and intervention planning
  • URODEA, The first non-invasive solution against urinary retention

Partners

Partners

Translational research relies on resilient and enriching networks for success. At ARTORG we aim to create a powerful network of scientists with engineering and medical backgrounds with an awareness for mutual development possibilities: Engineers with expertise in clinical problems, workflow and methodologies and clinicians with curiosity and understanding of technological approaches. 

The ARTORG is closely linked to the Bern University of Applied Sciences, the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine (sitem-insel), the Switzerland Innovation Park Biel and the Swiss Institutes of Technology (EPFL, ETHZ). International collaborations extend the reach and impact of ARTORG projects, addressing global healthcare challenges for patients and societies everywhere.

ARTORG’s premier clinical partner is the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, the largest, tertiary hospital in Switzerland. As part of the University of Bern medical faculty ARTORG and the Insel Gruppe foster strong multidisciplinary research and translation, profiting from mutual resources to allow clinical introduction from pilot work to full-scale clinical trials. 

The Bern Biomedical Engineering Network (BBME) unites the ARTORG Center, Inselspital, the regional biomedical engineering partners at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, the Innocampus AG, Biel and the Bernese medtech sector businesses. Their longstanding alignment in complementary and collaborative work is captured in a formal network, allowing for well-directed exchange of researchers, clinicians, resources, technology and facilities. BBME drives forward-looking, interdisciplinary research into novel biomedical engineering solutions that could benefit patients in the Canton Bern and beyond.