Linking the detailed information of the spatio-temporal distribution of air pollution levels and the chemical composition of the atmospheric particles with register data for mortality and morbidity, we have a unique opportunity in the Nordic countries to gain new understanding of the various health impacts from different kinds of air pollution from different kind of sources.
By increased accessibility to its health data, the Nordic region has the potential to be world-leading in research, health care and innovation. A new NordForsk report outlines an action plan towards implementing a Nordic secure digital infrastructure for health data - the Nordic Commons. The report is the outcome of two-year effort aiming to propose ways to increase Nordic cooperation on health data.
Personalised medicine, tailoring the right therapeutic strategy to the right person at the right time, is one of the areas where the Nordic countries can play an important role through cooperation. Now, The Joint Committee for the Nordic Medical Research Councils (NOS-M) presents conclusions, opportunities and recommendations in a newly published report.
According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Each year approximately 10 000 people in the Nordic region die prematurely as a result of air pollution exposure, but the question of which pollutants are the most detrimental to health has yet to be resolved. Professor Jørgen Brandt and other participants in the NordForsk project NordicWelfAir are hunting for the answer.
Major advancements in many fields now make it possible to personalise medical treatment. Still, there are too few products facilitating this in practice, particularly when it comes to treatment that patients themselves carry out at home. The Nordic POP project is looking to change this. “Our goal is to develop pharmaceutical products and technological solutions of the future, where personalised medical treatment is the common link,” says Professor Ingunn Tho of the Nordic POP project and the University of Oslo School of Pharmacy.
The Nordic Committee on Bioethics recently organised the conference Bioethics of clinical innovation and unproven methods in collaboration with Centre for Legal Studies in Welfare and Market at the University of Copenhagen. How are clinical innovations and unproven methods developed and introduced in western Nordic health-care systems? What is the legal and regulatory environment concerning unproven methods in medicine? What ethical principles should guide work on emerging treatments and experimentation in hospitals? These three questions were addressed in separate sessions in a day of fruitful discussions.