Improving value in healthcare
I am a Senior Economist in the Health Services Management Team at SWICA, one of Switzerland’s largest health insurers. I lead projects on healthcare financing, develop shared-savings and value-based models with provider partners, mostly within Managed Care contracts, and measure whether they actually change outcomes.
My role is to design financing models from claims data that create value and contain costs. I also evaluate whether our interventions actually work, with quasi-experimental designs and causal machine learning. We published our study on vitamin D testing in BMC Health Services Research, and it was picked up by the Sonntagszeitung and Tages-Anzeiger. I like exchanging ideas at national and international conferences in health economics, statistics, and population research.
Before, I was an Economics researcher at the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research (SEW) at the University of St. Gallen, where I led projects in education economics and applied econometrics. I published some work on gifted students and their positive effects on their peers.
Teaching to the next generation of economists
Since 2023, I have been teaching introductory data science with R, and since 2026, Introduction to Programming for undergraduate economists at the University of St. Gallen. I focus on making statistical concepts accessible and helping students develop practical skills for their future careers in data science, economics, and related fields.
And other things
When I’m not analyzing data or teaching, I’m likely outdoors, running and biking in the Swiss Alps. I’m also passionate about civic engagement and the R community. Since 2023, I’ve been a co-organizer of the Zürich R User Group. In 2024, I was elected to the audit commission of the municipality of Flawil, where I contribute to local democratic oversight.