Swiss Cohort & Biobank - The White Paper.

In the case of longitudinal surveillance, population-based cohort studies have the advantage of having the whole healthcare system under surveillance and not just individuals treated in centralized university hospitals. This is of particular relevance in Switzerland in the absence of broadly accessible ambulatory care data. Thus, population-based cohort data also provides primary care physicians with an important evidence-base on the long-term population health impact of their care activities.