Survey of Biobanks at a Swiss University Hospital

Human biobanks are a valuable source of biospecimens and personal data to be used for research. Little is known of how many biobanks exist at a given Swiss University Hospital. The purpose of this survey conducted at the CHUV hospital ( >40'000 patients hospitalized per year) and the faculty of biology and medicine (FBM) at the University in Lausanne, Switzerland was a) to provide an overview of the number of biobanks, b) to assess their purpose and size, c) to determine the kinds of biospecimens collected and d) to analyse the extent to which the biobanks follow the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) guidelines on biobanks