Nordic Life Science 1
saksson agrees and cites Sweden’s experience in t
he sensitive area of sharing and using health data. “We have a long history of creating and using datasets and understanding their value for clinical research and innovation,” she says. “We also have many successful companies that have created groundbreaking technology in life science.” The next step is to “radically increase” the ability to share data across regions and countries. The role of governance, she says, is ensuring data are used with integrity and respect for individual rights and toward equitable health and societal outcomes. These ideas all go back to co-creation toward sustainability. “If the overarching goal is healthy people and healthy planet,” Isaksson says, “we need industry and academia and the public sector to do research and innovation together.” Health data is an example of potential pay-offs. Precision medicine studies may require very specific datasets, for example on a few individuals with rare diseases. Reducing widespread chronic disease may require population-level data. Communication and coordination across sectors about data infrastructure, processes and management could facilitate efficient, responsible, innovative use of health data. 52 Isaksson now has children who are the age she was when she began using the internet to build a global community. She’s continuing the family tradition of raising kids to be “proactive creators.” Like her childhood dinner conversations, she encourages her family to recognize and reflect on the personal and societal impact of digital interactions, although, unlike Piteå, she adds, “We don’t have a lab at home.” Isaksson herself is still learning and encourages others in a 2018 talk to the European Economic and Social Committee, when she said, “Lifelong learning is not just for kids.” At all ages, she asserts, we should compel ourselves, our employers and our institutions “to maximize and optimize the flow and penetration of knowledge.” Leaders today, she says, have an opportunity to provide society with “more knowledge, better health, more creativity and a truly sustainable lifestyle. To succeed we must only do more of what makes us most human: our ability to communicate and collaborate and innovate.” Today, in response to COVID-19, the life science community is instinctively applying Isaksson’s guidance. “It’s been encouraging to see the global collaboration,” she says, “rapidly sharing data and results and making critical resources available across borders.” The pandemic is a serious crisis for all of us but, as Isaksson notes, it could raise awareness about the need for life science research and innovation and the positive potential of large, systemic changes. NLS