SCMI: 70 months – 142 peer-reviewed publications

As the second funding period of the Swiss Center for Musculoskeletal Imaging, SCMI, slowly starts coming to an end, we allow ourselves a short look back at the 70 months passed since our official opening at the end of November 2018. Progress towards our ultimate goal – contributions to improved patient treatment – is difficult to assess. An easier-to-evaluate proxy is the number of manuscripts that were published by our users and/or that were (co-) authored by SCMI staff.

It turns out that, on average, there were some two papers published every month – despite Covid-related restrictions. And there is an accelerating, positive trend:

You can find a list of publications on our Website.

We are very much indebted and grateful to our many users and collaborators, nationally, e.g., at

Balgrist Campus AG | Universit?tsklinik Balgrist | University of Zurich | 瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院 and EPFL | University of Basel | Empa | Universit?tsspital Zürich | Schulthess Klinik | Kinderspital Zürich | Kantonsspital Winterthur | CHUV /?Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois | Insel Gruppe and sitem-insel | Psychiatrische Universit?tsklinik Zürich | Klinik Lengg | ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften | Nationales Sportzentrum Magglingen, and some commercial users for trusting our young institution with the support of more than 200 single- and multi-center studies and projects.

We are lucky to profit from a close partnership with the Radiology Department at the University Hospital Balgrist and Prof. Reto Sutter and from a successful collaboration with the industrial partner 西门子医疗 and their on-site scientists who help drive the development of imaging methodology on our 7T and 3T MRI and Photon-Counting CT scanners.

Our thanks also go to all the researchers and healthcare professionals, who contribute to the inspiring, vibrant energy in the Health Cluster Lengg, in particular also at the University Hospital Balgrist with Professors Mazda Farshad , Patrick Freund , Philipp Fürnstahl, J?rg Sp?rri , or Thomas Kessler.

The realization of the SCMI would not have been possible without our founders Professors Christian Gerber MD, PhD, Christian W. A. Pfirrmann, Armin Curt, and Jess Snedeker, nor without the funding and trust of the Swiss State Secretariat for Research, Education and Innovation and numerous other donors. Successful operation critically hinges on the relentless commitment of our outstanding core team (with current and former members Sara Erostrato, Nadja Fr?hlich , Janina Blattner, Stefan Sommer , Constantin von Deuster, PhD , Thomas Marth, Roy Marcus , Serena Bonaretti , Adrian Marth , and Natalie Hinterholzer M.Sc. ) and of many others, who work, e.g., in administration or ICT, at Balgrist Campus and Balgrist University Hospital, or who volunteered to undergo MRI exams.

Having prepared solid groundwork, we are looking forward to welcoming more users in our open-access imaging center and in our sister platforms SCMA and SCMB, and to contributing to the continuous improvement of patient care.