Focus area Health Innovation – a diamond in the rough
Health is a vital part of our lives. Both as individuals and as a society, we are interested in having effective, accessible, and relevant ways to maintain or improve health. At the same time, health is challenged throughout life. Developing and evaluating new solutions – innovations – to maintain or improve health is therefore of great interest to many, and highly relevant to society.
This is a personally written text. Any opinions expressed are the author’s own.
“At the University, it is clear that it is when we work together that we can achieve good research that creates value in society."
Ingeborg Nilsson, Focus Area Leader
This year Halmstad University celebrates its 40th anniversary! In a series of chronicles, you get to follow Halmstad University's 40-year research journey, from no research to research for innovation. In this chronicle, Ingeborg Nilsson, Focus Area Leader, tells us about the importance of working togther to create health innovation.
The focus area Health Innovation at Halmstad University is based on challenges that people, businesses and society identify in relation to health and well-being. Together, we develop relevant research and education. The Health Innovation focus area is a good example of a diamond that shines, but with joint efforts can be cut even better.
A brave and innovative decision
The focus area Health Innovation started in 2014. Making the decision to profile research and education at Halmstad University in this way was both brave and innovative. There is something grand and remarkable about a small university that, despite potential challenges, sets out to create a clear vision for its research and education. Halmstad University not only wants to be a generally high-quality university, but also to create a profile and claim an area. Halmstad University does. It shows a leadership with clear ambition and a vision that promotes university-wide collaboration. At the University, it is clear that it is when we work together that we can achieve good research that creates value in society.
But what is the ambition and goal of the focus area Health Innovation? The focus area has a holistic perspective on health, which is why research, education and collaboration with other societal actors are absolutely essential. Ambitious work to develop a distinct and detailed focus was described as early as 2021 in the strategy that was developed within the focus area and that the Vice-Chancellor adopted at the time. A clear plan was outlined for how education, research and collaboration can contribute to, but also benefit from, the focus area. Around the same time, it was decided that it would be possible at the University to apply for the establishment of multidisciplinary research programmes. This meant that the University’s organisation and forms of research were partly redrawn.
Powerful research
Within the focus area Health Innovation, there are currently two good examples of powerful research programmes that produce high-quality research that is in demand nationally and internationally. The research programmes contribute to the academic development and careers of all of us and generate the next generation of teachers and researchers. The programmes – Movement for Health and Performance and Information-Driven Care – are clear examples of how the focus area can be developed. My hope is to soon be able to welcome more research programmes.
Ingeborg Nilsson finds it important that we all work together.
How physical activity and movement can contribute to health and how digital technology can contribute to the development of healthcare are aspects within the framework of the existing research programmes. Despite these ambitious programmes, there is still more that needs to be discovered, cross-pollinated and challenged. The focus area as a whole would benefit from even more innovative multidisciplinary collaborations. The focus area could also be strengthened by even clearer social science research direction on how societal support and structures can be developed but also influenced by health innovations. Educational research direction; What pedagogical methods can be used, developed or support health innovation?
At the same time, academia is a somewhat challenging business. It is pretty well established that we researchers are often considered to be a rather nerdy breed, snowed in on ‘our own thing’ and with both a strong need for control and competitive behaviour. Agreeing on, designing and developing a focus area is therefore not something that is done during a coffee break. This places demands on the management of the University and the focus area, but also on us, each and every one of us who work with the health innovative perspective. We all need to take the initiative for collaborations and seek out situations that can strengthen the focus area. A research idea or syllabus can be refined by discussing it in a workshop. Ongoing research collaborations may have the potential to become even more entrenched if more people are involved. Get in touch with researchers or leaders of the focus areas for conversations and creative reasoning! If you work with health issues in the region, municipality or private sector and want to collaborate on current research, contact us!
Health innovation concerns everyone
Health innovation is an important area for each and every one of us citizens to have knowledge about taking care of our health and well-being, to contribute to the further development of healthcare, and to contribute knowledge about which initiatives and structures society needs to support for good and equal health. At the same time, health innovation as an area is both fleeting and trend-sensitive, and perhaps it can also be perceived as provocative – as a clear sign that we live in an individualistic world. Many questions are raised. What is health? When can something be considered an innovation? Who is responsible for health? There is therefore a need for a clear focus for the focus area that ensures relevance, quality and scientific rigour, while at the same time a young university can perhaps be a little more solution-focused?
Many fields and areas of the painting health innovation already exist, and other parts are in the process of being painted. In addition, each painting needs a frame. The framework creates the perspective and provides a concrete and clear framing of the different areas of the focus area and of the type of issues that can be expected to be knowledge development. The work with the painting and the frame is ongoing and here you and I have the opportunity to both influence and contribute. Take the chance; it's together that we can do it!
Text: Ingeborg Nilsson
Photo: iStock and Dan Bergmark
