Akershus University Hospital | Institute of clinical medicine, Campus Ahus

Evaluation of Medicine and Health (Evalmedhelse) 2023-2024

The aim of the evaluation is to assess the quality of Norwegian medicine and health research, the conditions for the research and the research's relevance to key areas of society. The evaluation results in recommendations to the institutions, the Research Council and the ministries.

Ahus has four statutory responsibilities: patient treatment, education, research, and transfer of knowledge to patient and relatives. Research at Ahus is important to improve clinical care for patients at Norway's largest acute hospital (catchment area for Ahus >600,000 inhabitants, which is >10% of the Norwegian population). Research at Ahus has also improved care for patients regionally, nationally, and internationally. With Ahus being a major teaching hospital in Norway, Ahus contributes to the education of all categories of health care professionals in Norway.

Research at Ahus (hospital-level) in the period 2012-2022 has been strongly influenced by priorities and strategic documents also from the University of Oslo (UiO). As one of two teaching hospitals in the greater Oslo region, developments in research and innovation at Ahus has been greatly improved by the collaboration with UiO. Economic investments in personnel and infrastructure comes both from Ahus (hospital) and from UiO (university), including administrative staff and local leadership from UiO located at Ahus (referred to as “Campus Ahus”). Accordingly, for this evaluation, we present research at Ahus (hospital) and Campus Ahus (UiO) together, as the interaction is tightly interconnected with most senior researchers at Ahus having joint positions between Ahus (hospital) and UiO (university).

Self-assessment

Organizational maps and collaboration

Ahus and the Institute of Clinical Medicine, Campus Ahus are evaluated together. Here is an overview of the organizational chart for Akershus University Hospital, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Campus Ahus and a map showing the academic cooperation between these two institutions:

Annual Reports

Self-assessment links to important strategic documents in the following categories: Research strategy, Outreach strategies, Open science policy.

See the link below where we have included our important strategy documents:

Research strategy

Outrearch strategies

Open science policy

Education strategy

Clinical studies have been an important focus at Ahus and Campus Ahus for many years. A summary has been prepared that present this effort.

Clinical interventional trials at Akershus university hospital (PDF)

Procedures and guidelines

Procedures and guidelines for conducting clinical studies are important, and we highlight here two overarching routines about roles and responsibilities for conducting clinical studies and testing of medical equipment:

Many other procedures and guidelines for clinical studies have also been prepared - see the table below:

Order access in DIPS for monitors in clinical drug trials 2.3
Reference document for clinical drug trials and testing of medical devices in Norway
Routine and supervisor for Requests to service departments in clinical studies
Form for requests to service departments in commissioned studies
Form for requests to service departments in researcher-initiated clinical studies
Accounting and use of the health company's income from innovations and clinical commissioned studies
Reimbursement of travel expenses and other study-related expenses for patients participating in clinical trials
Monitoring of clinical trials locally at Ahus
Control and calibration of medical equipment in clinical studies
Reporting of SUSAR in EudraVigilance
Handling of clinical drug trials in the EU portal Clinical Trial Information System (CTIS)

As part of the evaluation, there are 12 research groups at Ahus and Campus Ahus that are being evaluated.

Ahus has recently adopted a policy for innovation and business development:

The Faculty of Medicine’s Action Plan for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion 2023 – 2026

Akershus University Hospital has stated its policy for Diversity, Equity and Migration Health in a Long-term Strategic Plan:

Long-term plan for diversity, equity and migration health

Ahus has prepared a procedure that applies to applications to the NFR and EU:

EQS rutine: Guideline to ensure adherence to requirements for research grant applications submitted to The Research Council of Norway and the European Commission

We have several routines and guidelines for research at Ahus. We have selected what we consider to be the most important and translated them into English. In addition, we have created an overview of all the routines we have for the committee’s orientation.

Responsibility in research

User participation

User participation in research projects

Internal control

Overview of all routines

Overview of all routines and guidelines for research at Ahus. These are available for researchers and research support staff in our quality system (EQS), on the internet and intranet.