Nordic Life Science 1
Johanna Hästbacka, University of Helsinki, will i
nvestigate if severe COVID-19 is associated with altered long-term cognitive function. ordForsk’s project portfolio targets themes such as the distribution of health and welfare, innovations in personalized medicine, clinical trials and register-based research. “A lot of focus and investments have been made in how to increase the utilization of the sensitive data in Marte Helene Bjørk, University of Bergen, is doing a Nordic population registry study of ACE inhibitors/ ARBs and SARS-CoV-2 infection severity • ESTABLISHING THE NORDIC NODE OF THE COVID-19 HOST GENETICS INITIATIVE Project Leader: Andrea Ganna, FIMM, Finland • IS SEVERE COVID-19 ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERED LONG-TERM COGNITIVE FUNCTION? Project Leader: Johanna Hästbacka, University of Helsinki, Finland • MERGING THE 4 NORDIC ICU REGISTRIES FOR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF CRITICALLY ILL COVID-19 PATIENTS Project Leader: Hans Flaatten, Haukeland University Hospital, Norway • A NORDIC POPULATION REGISTRY STUDY OF ACE INHIBITORS/ARBS AND SARS-COV-2 INFECTION SEVERITY Project Leader: Marte Helene Bjørk, University of Bergen, Norway Nordic collaborative projects,” says Flåøyen. The Nordic countries unique position in terms of its collected health data has attracted attention from several sectors, including academia, commerce and at policy level, and there is great potential in exploring this data in research and innovations, according to Flåøyen. “However, this data is extremely sensitive, as it describes health-related information on individuals. It is therefore, by right, not easy to access the data due to legal restrictions and time-consuming administrative processes etc. It is however important to acknowledge that the trust among citizens in science must remain intact also in the future for us to keep utilizing this unique asset for research. In addition, it is of course also important to re-invest in the societies with the new knowledge gained from utilization of such data.” For example, NordForsk most recently coordinated work on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers where a vision for a Nordic Health Data Commons was presented. The Nordic Commons allows data to be more easily identified, shared, compiled and jointly analyzed, and would give the Nordic region a competitive advantage. “It will provide a platform for conducting reproducible and open research for the benefit of Nordic public health and societies. For the vision to be realized, five recommendations propose the way forward and several actors must take actions, including the policy level and research and innovation funders,” says Marianne Aastebøl Minge, Chief Operating Officer, NordForsk. Another area where NordForsk is working towards increased collaboration between the Nordic countries is clinical trials, foremost through the work of the Nordic Trial Alliance (NTA). This Alliance is based on established national networks for clinical research and aims to lay the foundation for increased collaboration between national and Nordic stakeholders. “Increased Nordic cooperation on clinical research will lead to a rise in the number of joint clinical trials and thus