By Charlotte Tybjerg Sørensen, AAU Kommunikation & Public Affairs
Photo: Colourbox

Right now, there are political negotiations about a reform of the Danish healthcare system. It is partly about strengthening the local healthcare system and creating better coherence in patient care pathways.

And solutions that can reform the healthcare system for the benefit of patients – that is exactly what a new health mission, led by AAU, aims to find. This is happening under the leadership of Professor Michael Skovdal Rathleff from the Department of Medicine and Health Technology and the Center for General Practice at Aalborg University (AAU), along with Associate Professor Ninna Meier from the Department of Sociology and Social Work, AAU, Professor Niels van Berkel from the Department of Computer Science, AAU, and Professor John Rasmussen from the Department of Materials and Production, AAU.

The mission aims to improve patient health through technology-supported and coherent care pathways, tailored to the individual patient.

The name of the mission: Improved Health through Coherence and Individualisation

The mission involves groundbreaking collaboration between researchers, patients, relatives, companies, and the healthcare system, aiming to find solutions to issues such as incoherent patient care pathways, silo thinking, and poor communication.

“Overall, we want to improve the health of patients through better coherence and greater individual adaptation in patient care pathways across the local and specialized healthcare system. To achieve this, society needs researchers, healthcare actors, municipalities, regions, and patients to come together in partnerships to find solutions. We need to support greater security and quality of life for the individual patient and optimize the use of healthcare services, so that we can, for example, avoid unnecessary examinations and hospitalizations,” says Michael Skovdal Rathleff.

Here are some examples of what the mission aims to achieve:

• A technology-supported coherent patient care pathway, where new AI technology collects patient data and supports the healthcare system’s use of data in a coherent and individually tailored patient care pathway across the local and specialized healthcare system.
• Development of digital tools that support patients’ self-management of chronic diseases.
• New technology for clinical practice, which integrates experiences, data, and evidence to support individualized treatment of patients in long-term care pathways.

Data from healthcare users form the basis of the mission

An interdisciplinary working group with representatives from all four faculties at the university has, among other things, based on data from more than 400 stakeholders: citizens, patients, clinicians, and leaders in the Danish healthcare system, as well as researchers from all faculties at AAU, identified the challenges that need to be solved and the direction the mission should take to improve the health of Danes.

“With this knowledge, we have a solid and valid foundation to begin the mission. Now we are starting, and we are reaching out to everyone who has a stake in the health of Danes to join the mission,” says Michael Skovdal Rathleff.

Aalborg University is the only university in Denmark working mission-driven. In 2023, the university launched its first two missions: A sustainable Danish energy system by 2035 and Improved Wellbeing Among Children And Youth by 2040. You can read more about it here: www.missions.aau.dk