DrPatrik Bachtiger

Dr. Patrik Bächtiger is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Acute Internal Medicine, with a research focus on Digital Health. His work is based out of the National Heart and Lung Institute within Imperial’s White City Innovation District.

Patrik’s broad research portfolio has a particular focus on implementation science for technology-enabled health and healthcare. Going beyond studies that simply demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of technological innovations, Patrik’s interests are in conducting implementation research – studying and subsequently optimising the contextual factors that enable innovative, technology-enabled clinical pathways to be operationalised at scale. His work has been presented internationally, published in digital health outlets from Nature and The Lancet, and covered in national media outlets (The Guardian, iNews, Financial Times).

Patrik’s research is funded, as lead or co-investigator, by grants from the NIHR, Imperial BRC, British Heart Foundation, and Imperial Health Charity. This includes a first-in-kind implementation study of a point-of-care artificial intelligence technology applied to digital biomarkers for the detection of cardiovascular disease (TRICORDER cluster-RCT; NCT05987670). The wider implementation research portfolio includes, for example, investigation of virtual ward and longitudinal disease monitoring pathways through the NWL Virtual Hospital; novel diagnostic technology for obstructive sleep apnoea; large language models applied for patient empowerment; and wearable technology anchoring inclusive cardiac rehabilitation. Outcomes evaluation is increasingly powered by sector-level data assets such the London Secure Data Envionment (OneLondon), where possible with the ambition of addressing a core outcome pentad considering clinical, health economic, patient-centric, workforce, and sustainability impacts.

All this work is underpinned by close collaboration with NHS partners, international academic colleagues, and industry partners, ranging from startups to big-tech companies. All research is patient-centric and engaged with patient charities/advocacy groups, further informed by Patrik’s experience creating and running the largest longitudinal participatory epidemiology study (LoC-19) to leverage an NHS patient portal, where collaborative outputs addressed important health policy questions.

Patrik was previously the UK’s first clinical research fellow in Digital Health, completing a PhD supervised by Professor Nicholas Peters through funding from Imperial Health Charity and NIHR. He completed his academic foundation training (laboratory sciences) at University College London; award-winning MSc research at Barts and The London School of Medicine; and Core Medical Training at King’s College Hospital. He was subsequently the recipient of a prestigious Harvard Knox Fellowship, the preeminent scholarship for UK citizens pursuing postgraduate study at Harvard University. He completed his Masters in Public Health (MPH, health policy and digital health concentration) while cross-registered at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Medical and Business Schools. HIs practicum was supervised by Dr. Trishan Panch at Wellframe, which provides digital health management to tens of millions of patients in the US.

Patrik applies his UK/US experience in clinical medicine, life sciences, and health technology innovation in his work as a venture partner with Meridian Health Ventures, the first NHS-anchored venture capital fund.

He continues to supervise PhD, MSc, and BSc students and maintains a broad and active teaching portfolio. His parallel clinical work is as a specialty registrar in Acute Internal Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where he is the first clinical academic for his sub-specialty.