Manuel Trachsel, M.D., PhD
Speaker; Professor of Bio and Medical Ethics, Head of the Clinical Ethics Unit, University of Basel, Switzerland
Manuel Trachsel has been trained in medicine (Dr. med.), clinical psychology (Dr. phil.), and philosophy/ethics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is the head of the Clinical Ethics Unit at the University Hospital of Basel, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the University Childrens’ Hospital Basel (UKBB), and the Geriatric University Clinic FELIX PLATTER Basel, Switzerland. He is affiliated with the Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of
Basel, Switzerland.
From 2012 to 2022, Dr. Trachsel has been a senior research and teaching associate at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland. In 2014, he was a visiting research fellow at the Bioethics Center of the University of Otago, New Zealand, and in 2016/2017, a research fellow at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.
In 2020, he has been awarded with the Mark S. Ehrenreich Global Prize in Healthcare Ethics Research by the Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, University of Southern California.
Dr. Trachsel’s research areas include the philosophy and ethics of psychiatry and psychotherapy, the intersection of psychiatry and palliative care, ethical challenges regarding coercive measures in psychiatry, clinical ethics support services in psychiatry, medical decision-making capacity, and informed consent.
He is a published author of more than 100 scientific papers, book chapters, and books including articles in JAMA, The Lancet Psychiatry, The American Journal of Bioethics, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The British Journal of Psychiatry, and Frontiers in Psychiatry among others. Furthermore, Dr. Trachsel is the lead editor of the Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics.
His clinical medical experience includes the practice of psychiatry and psychotherapy as a resident at the Psychiatric Inpatient Clinic in Münsingen, Switzerland, and as a senior physician at the hospital of Thun, Switzerland.