Foto: Ingvild Festervoll Melien

Summer is just around the corner and in this last editorial before the holidays, I want to make some observations about economy and culture.

At the start of the year, K2’s finances could resemble an airplane plunging towards the ground, but with persistent efforts we have succeeded in levelling the plane. We are no longer losing altitude and are now set to land on the budgeted deficit. Many have worked diligently to make this happen, not least Maria Holmaas and Beate Bernes. In addition, we have received good help from the faculty.

Going forward, the job will be to gain altitude and get rid of the deficit with the actions I have previously outlined; more research on less space, more teaching with fewer people, more EU and NFR projects and a relatively of 0-overhead grants, restructuring, possible closure of core facilities.

If we are to achieve this, everyone must be willing to “take one for the team”. This means that the tasks and burdens must be distributed more evenly than is the case today. It is not up to the individual employee to decide all his or her work tasks. As a teacher at the university, you can’t say that, no, I don’t want to be UGLE, or I just want to teach my narrow area of specialization – my colleagues have to do the other work. Everyone in an area must share the UGLE task, you may have to devote a little more time and effort to renew your teaching and taking on teaching tasks that you are not entirely familiar with and sit on a committee not entirely relevant for you – then the work will be more evenly distributed.

Since I also work at the Department of Medicine, I get the opportunity to experience another organization. Every morning, the department gathers for a morning meeting with a report from the team on call and the individual units. One might think that a lot of time is wasted on such a joint meeting, but this meeting point creates a unity and a team spirit that translates into offering help when someone is short on staff or hands to solve a task – you grow into thinking more of us than me. Now, K2 is a different type of organization and I am not suggesting that we should have morning meetings, but the team spirit at Department of Medicine is something we need to acquire in order to perform and thrive better at K2.

Use the summer to think about how you can contribute to a better team spirit;  don’t ask what the department can do for you – ask what you can do for the department.

Finally, Professor Silke Appel will be the new Head of Department and will take office as soon as it is practically possible. We congratulate her and wish her the best of luck at K2’s helm.

Have a lovely summer,

Eystein Husebye

DigitalHealth2024 was recently hosted in Bergen. This is the third time this conference, organized by Helse Bergen, Bergen University College, and Alrek Health Cluster, has taken place. This year’s conference was filled to capacity, with 700 participants. The main subject, as suggested by the title, was the development and implementation of digitalization in healthcare, which is highly relevant to much of the operations at K2.

Many participants probably expected the conference to provide answers regarding the direction of digitalization and the “next big thing”. Where are we headed when ChatGPT is no longer a novelty that can provide you with a waffle recipe and a few humorous answers to your simple questions, and it is no longer sensational that digital image analysis can reduce the response time for radiological examinations? The answer provided can be summarized as “it is coming, and it is developing rapidly”. It is difficult, even for those who work with digitalization daily, to foresee what the next few years will bring on a specific level. One subject that stood out was patient-related data, collected through digital channels, where the channel is not only used for data collection – but also more actively in patient care e.g. to convey information or to identify patients who need intensified follow-up.

The challenges seem easier to identify. We need to be actively involved in the development, and not wait for technology to be introduced. Patient safety and privacy quickly become an issue, closely linked to data collection and acquisition, e.g. in the context of collaboration with commercial services. Financing, political incentives, and a jungle of companies, apps, and services entering the market with varying degrees of validation are other key points.

It is important to remember that not only classic products, but also services and processes can be included when considering technology and innovation in healthcare. Regardless, it will be challenging but crucial to stay updated as the field races ahead. In summary, I believe that digitalization and increasing awareness around it can make the path from research to implementation shorter – but still, it is a bit difficult to grasp exactly how this will happen.

Silje