Marcel Widmer is the Director of the Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan). He holds a Master's degree in Educational Sciences, Sociology and Philosophy (Lic. Phil. Hist.) from the Universities of Bern and Fribourg. After working as a research collaborator at the Institute for Evaluative Research in Orthopaedics (IEFO) at the University of Bern, he joined Obsan in 2008. Over the years, he progressed from project leader to head of competence areas, including the health workforce, healthcare services and indicator monitoring. In 2022, he became Obsan's director.

His research focuses on health services research, particularly regional analyses and comparisons. Among other things, he is the initiator of the Swiss Health Care Atlas and has contributed to numerous publications on the subject of workforce shortages in the healthcare sector.