Artificial intelligence and precision health at Halmstad University

In a new research profile at Halmstad University, called CAISR Health, research on the development of AI tools meet research on how these tools can be implemented in healthcare. The theme is AI and precision health, and the research is carried out in collaboration with Region Halland and the business sector. CAISR Health starts today, July 1, and the profile’s research projects will be running from August.

The new research profile CAISR Health focuses on information driven care and how this is implemented in healthcare in the best possible way. In the profile, researchers at the University collaborate with Region Halland, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the companies Cambio, Capio Sverige, Hallandia V, Mölnlycke, Novartis, InterSystems and Visiba Care.

Top-level research about how information driven care is best implemented

CAISR Health focuses on using the data that is generated through the entire healthcare process to enable qualified decision-making in healthcare.

“Data is generated every time a person comes into contact with healthcare, when they pick up medicine, or when they are in what we call ‘intelligent environments’. Data can be refined into knowledge to, for example, better decide when a patient is ready to be discharged, what treatment an individual can most benefit from and make sure that the treatment is doing what it should”, says Mattias Ohlsson, Project Leader for CAISR Health and Professor of Information Technology at Halmstad University and Lund University.

The access to health data is possible through Region Halland and is complemented by an extensive “health data factory” which the University and Region Halland have invested in. The goal is to establish a top-level research profile about how information driven care is best developed, implemented and used, about privacy preserving distributed data mining and machine learning for healthcare data.

Decision aid for heart failure and mental illness

Within the research profile CAISR Health, several different projects will be conducted – all with the aim of developing and implementing information driven care.

“In our research, we combine data from healthcare with data from, for example, smartwatches and sensors. Using information driven care, it is possible to act more proactive and health preventative. One of our projects aims to predict which young adults risk being affected by mental illness in order to be able to offer these individuals support at an early stage. Another project focuses on wound care while a third project offers decision aid for doctors when they are discharging heart failure patients”, says Kobra (Farzaneh) Etminani, Assistant Professor at Halmstad University.

Markus Lingman is Chief Physician and Strategist at Region Halland and a part of CAISR Health:

“Information driven care is about delivering fact based and individual focused precision care. Information driven care decreases the fragmentation since it combines different parts of healthcare and creates a unit. This lowers the risk for over- or under-treatment which is good for both the individual and the taxpayers”, says Markus Lingman and continues:

“A close collaboration between academia, the business sector and the region within CAISR Health makes it possible to quickly transfer knew research knowledge to real patient value in the form of longer life, increased health and an increased trust in health care. AI is also an important tool to enable equal care.”

Text: Louise Wandel and Thorsteinn Rögnvaldsson
Translation: Linnéa Andersson
Photo, collage and illustration: Dan Bergmark