​Daniel C. Baumgart, MD, PhD, MBA – a global leader in the digital transformation of medicine and healthcare. As a Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Computing Science at the University of Alberta, he directs From Data to Decision (FD2D), a Government of Canada-funded international research and training program connecting experts from 22 top institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia. With 20+ years of hands-on experience in three G7 countries in digital innovation including AI, he’s driving the future of precision health and personalized medicine

Alexandre Dumusc is an attending physician in the Department of Rheumatology at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). After completing his initial specialisation in internal medicine, he joined the Department of Rheumatology in Lausanne in 2012 to further specialise in rheumatology. He completed his training with a fellowship in the Rheumatology Department at the University Hospital of Birmingham (United Kingdom) focused on Sjögren’s disease.

His research interests and activities focus on inflammatory rheumatic diseases, particularly Sjögren’s disease, crystal-induced arthropathies, and medical education.

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PD Dr. Emmanuel Laffitte is head of the outpatient clinic in the HUG Dermatology Department. He is particularly interested in inflammatory pathologies with cutaneous repercussions and autoimmune dermatoses.

Professor Caroline Pot is the head of the Neuroimmunology Unit and the Multiple Sclerosis Center within the Service of Neurology at CHUV.

Caroline Pot is a clinician-scientist specialized in neuroimmunology with a strong expertise in multiple sclerosis (MS). She was trained as a neurologist at the Geneva, Switzerland. In parallel to her clinical expertise, she completed her MD-thesis at the University of Zurich and performed a research fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. In 2015, she joined the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the Lausanne University Hospital, awarded by a Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship and was nominated associate Professor in 2019. Since 2024, she is heading the Unit of Neuroimmunology and multiple sclerosis of the Service of Neurology.

In parallel, Caroline Pot is heading the Laboratory of Experimental Neuroimmunology. With her research team she focuses her work on establishing the role of lipid metabolism and intestinal mucosal immunology (gut-brain axis) in driving MS

Marc Blanchard holds a Ph.D. in Life Sciences, specializing in digital health solutions for chronic conditions. As a project leader at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Marc leads the DETECTRA project, focused on the development of digital biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis. He also heads ATREON SA, a spin-off from CHUV, dedicated to deploying remote monitoring solutions for inflammatory arthritis. With a background in Biology and Medical Biology, Marc has expertise in pharmacology, toxicology, and drug development, and he is an active contributor to the digital health community.

​​Dr. Matthieu Halfon is a clinician–scientist specializing in immuno-mediated kidney diseases, with a strong focus on lupus nephritis and glomerulonephritis recurrence after kidney transplantation. He trained at Bichat Hospital, Paris, under Prof. Éric Daugas, where he published on early prognostic markers in lupus nephritis .After, working several years in the  Transplantation center of Lausanne university hospital, he is currently senior resident in the nephrology service of Fribourg Cantonal Hospital.

Dr. Halfon leads translational research integrating clinical, histologic, and proteomic data to identify biomarkers and immune pathways driving renal injury. His ongoing work investigates mitochondrial stress markers as predictors of lupus nephritis activity.

His goal is to advance precision medicine in autoimmune and alloimmune kidney diseases.

Nursing assistant in different health institutions (hospital, nursing home, rehabilitation centers etc.) for around 7 years

B.A. International Affairs (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland)

M.Sc. Global Health (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

PhD candidate in life science, (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) at the rheumatology department CHUV under Prof. T. Hügle focusing on decentralized clinical trials with digital therapeutics and digital biomarkers 

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PD Dr. T. Manigold is a board-certified specialist (FMH) in General Internal Medicine and Rheumatology with extensive clinical, academic, and leadership experience. Since May 2022, he has served as Senior Physician and, since May 2023, Head of the Outpatient Clinic at the University Clinic for Rheumatology and Immunology, Inselspital, Bern.

He previously held positions as Chief Physician for Rehabilitation and Rheumatology at ZurzachCare AG, Zollikerberg (2020–2022), and as Senior Physician in Rheumatology at the University Hospital Basel (2018–2020), where he also served as a consulting rheumatologist at the Cantonal Hospital Liestal. His earlier career includes leading roles in immunology research at Hoffmann-La Roche (Basel) and as Assistant Professor and Research Group Leader in Hantavirus Immunology at Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago de Chile.

Dr. Manigold completed his medical studies and doctorate (summa cum laude) at Heidelberg University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, USA. He habilitated in Experimental Medicine at the University of Basel in 2013 and obtained a second habilitation in Rheumatology at the University of Bern in 2023.

He holds additional qualifications in musculoskeletal ultrasound (SGUM), interventional pain management (SSIPM Diploma), and training in synovial biopsies (Queen Mary Hospital, London, Prof. C. Pitzalis).

Dr. Manigold is active in research, teaching, and academic publishing, serving as coordinator for Rheuma Schweiz and as reviewer for several international journals. He has broad experience in personnel and budget management, mentoring of master’s students, and collaboration with industry partners. He is a member of multiple professional societies including FMH, VSAO, SGR, SGUM, and DGRh.

Nikhil Yawalkar is associate professor and deputy chairman at the Department of Dermatology, University of Bern, Switzerland. He is board certified in dermatology (1995) as well as allergy and clinical immunology (1998) and has completed two postdoctoral research fellowships at Department of Dermatology, UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco  and at the Harvard Skin Disease Research Center, Boston, USA.  His  main research interests include  immunological mechanisms in inflammatory skin diseases, i.e. psoriasis, cutaneous drug eruptions, atopic eczema, urticaria, hidradenitis suppurativa .  He has over 193 publications in international peer-reviewed  journals and is a member of  various national and international professional societies.