Matthias Egger is professor of epidemiology and public health at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...

in Switzerland, as well as professor of clinical epidemiology at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

in the United Kingdom.

Education and career

Egger completed his clinical training at the University of Bern and the

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public h ...

. He joined the faculty of the University of Bern in 2002, and also became a professor at the University of Bristol that year. Since January 2017, Matthias Egger is president of the Research Council of the

Swiss National Science Foundation The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, German: ''Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung'', SNF; French: ''Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique'', FNS; Italian: ''Fondo nazionale svizzero ...

Scientific work

In 1997, Egger published a paper describing a method for detecting bias in meta-analyses by analyzing

funnel plot A funnel plot is a graph designed to check for the existence of publication bias; funnel plots are commonly used in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. In the absence of publication bias, it assumes that studies with high precision will be plotte ...

s. This paper has been cited more than 38,600 times on

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

as of May 2022. In 2005, Egger published a study comparing 110 trials of

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a di ...

with 110 trials of conventional medicine in ''the Lancet''. It found that there was strong evidence that conventional medicine was more effective than

placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

, but only weak evidence that homeopathy was. Egger told WebMD that in this study, "The effect of homeopathy disappears if you look only at large, good trials; whereas the conventional medicines' effect is still there." Egger has also published research on a wide variety of other medical topics, such as the demographics of people who choose

assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...

, the association between exposure to aircraft noise and heart attacks, and the effectiveness of

pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV)—known as Pneumovax 23 (PPV-23)—is the first pneumococcal vaccine derived from a capsular polysaccharide. The polysaccharide antigens were used to induce type-specific antibodies that enhanced opso ...

Other activities

* Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), Member of the Board of Directors (since 2020)Who we are
Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Egger, Matthias University of Bern faculty Living people Swiss public health doctors Alumni of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Academics of the University of Bristol Year of birth missing (living people)