Beginning this year, K2 wishes to gather our junior researchers (PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows) at a two-day event once a year, with an academic and social program. The event is called «K2 Junior Annual Retreat». The event’s purpose is to have a common arena for exchanges of competency across the research groups, provide new opportunities for sharing experiences, and foster feelings of togetherness at our institute. The event is covered by K2, including accommodation and meals from lunch-to-lunch.

Registration.

Regards Simon N. Dankel
– Chairman of the Organization Committee –

The Unit for Learning (UFL) at the faculty offers a series of courses and seminars this autumn.

The program is available here.

The semester starts with two exciting mini-seminars with guests from Canada, i.e., the University of Calgary and McGill University. Canada is a pioneer in medicine education and research in medical education. This is a great opportunity to get to know what they are doing and to bring inspiration and ideas to our own education.

Throughout the autumn there will be workshops on topics such as multi-choice assignments and student activist education. These are aimed at all teachers at the faculty. Sign up by clicking the links on the event page. (There are limited seats!)

The Unit for Learning has over time been working on developing a university education program aimed at employees in less than 50 per cent positions. This is an employee group that has few other competence enhancement offerings in education. We aim to offer this for the first time during the spring 2018 as a course that gives five credit points. A similar offer will also be set up for PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows.

During the next three years, The Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research will allocate around NOK 75 million to research projects in Norway, Sweden, Finland or the UK addressing selected knowledge holes in mental health in children and adolescents.

More information about the announcement and application process for 2017 can be found here.

You may also receive further information about this and future announcements via a newsletter.

Centre for Digital Life Norway announces several meetings this autumn that might be of interest. See here.

Is anyone interested in buying a license for the data analysis software Ingenuity Pathways Analysis?, asks postdoctor Anne-Kristin Stavrum on behalf of her group, and writes on:

At the beginning of July, we received some funding (Smådriftsmidler) from the institute, and we would like to spend this money on a license for the data analysis software Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). A brief description of the program is given below.

The funds we received from the institute do not cover the full amount of the license, so we have to add a little by ourselves. There are different types of licenses. The most relevant are licenses for one user or five users. Since a license for five users is only “a bit” more expensive than a single-user license, we would like to know if someone else at the institute might be interested in sharing the costs for a five-users-license.

Exact price per license will depend on any additional packages that can be purchased, and any offer we may receive from Qiagen. The price will probably amount to NOK 13–15,000 per license, after deducting the amount we were awarded from the institute. The license will be valid for one year.

Interested parties may contact Anne-Kristin Stavrum at the latest on Thursday 24 August.

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The Regional Research Fund Vestlandet and the Research Council of Norway arrange a workshop for you working with an idea or application for a research and development project. The intention with the workshop is to provide the participants with skills to develop a research project and write a good application. The participants are expected to work with their own ideas and projects.

Time: 6 September at 10–15.
Venue: Statens hus, meeting room 11th floor, Kaigaten 9, Bergen.

Deadline for registration: 1 September.
Registration form.
Information.

The workshop is free of charge, but accepts a limited number of participants.

NEW INTERNATIONAL STUDY SHOWS LONGER COOLING AFTER HEART STAY DOES NOT GUARANTEE INTEREST OF PROGNOSEN

Stavanger University Hospital has, as the only Norwegian hospital, participated in a European cardiac arrest study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Although the study did not show that the 48 hour cooling period yielded significantly better results than the standard 24 hour cooling, there was still an interesting difference in 6-month survival that could indicate that a major study should be conducted to clarify the question.

In 2013, Professor Eldar Søreide (K1) and Professor Alf Ingen Larsen (K2), as leaders of the Emergency Medical and Cardiological Research Group at SUS, entered into a research agreement with Aarhus University Hospital. One of the results is

Targeted Temperature Management for 48 vs 24 Hours and Neurologic Outcome After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Kirkegaard H, Søreide E, de Haas I, Pettilä V, Taccone FS, Arus U, Storm C, Hassager C, Nielsen JF, Sørensen CA, Ilkjær S, Jeppesen AN, Grejs AM, Duez CHV, Hjort J, Larsen AI, Toome V, Tiainen M, Hästbacka J, Laitio T, Skrifvars MB.
JAMA. 2017 Jul 25;318(4):341-350. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.8978.

The study was duly commented on in a management article by one of the foremost experts in the field, Professor Cliffton Callaway of Pittsburgh University.

Targeted Temperature Management After Cardiac Arrest: Finding the Right Dose for Critical Care Interventions.

Callaway CW. JAMA. 2017 Jul 25;318(4):334-336. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.8977.

Callway pointed out that although the study failed to show a statistically significant 15% absolute difference in survival between the Groups, the results indicated that there could be a minor but still interesting difference in favor of the longer cooling period. This will only confirm a much larger study. Futhermore, the study was famed for both good data quality and good follow up of the patients. Survival in both study Groups was also much higher than reported in previous similar studies. This may be due to serveral factors,  not to mention that both prehospital and hospital treatment have gereally improved over the years.

The two Norwegian co-authors of the study wish to thank all involved healthcare professionals in general and the families and patients who said yes to participate in particular. They think this publication illustrates the possibilities and importance of collaboration between research groups and between institutions in several countries. That way, they hope the publication can serve as inspiration for younger colleagues.

Welcome to the opening symposium – K.G. Jebsen Center for autoimmune diseases.

Time: Friday, August 18th 2017
Place: Bikuben Conference center

For registration please send email to Elisabeth Whiteley