Health Crises Forum 2024 – when a health crisis or war hits us, what will universities do?
When crisis or war comes’ is both the title of a now well-known brochure and the theme of Sweden's first Health Crisis Forum, organised by the Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institute (KI). Over 100 specially invited participants, including two state secretaries, the surgeon general and the National Board of Health and Welfare's head of emergency preparedness, gathered to discuss the role of higher education institutions in the event of a health crisis or war.
The question of what the role of universities should be before, during and after a health crisis, and not least how their expertise and resources can benefit the surrounding community, is something the Centre for Health Crises is actively working on.
In order to explore the question more broadly and bring several actors together, the Centre chose to invite representatives from universities, county councils, the Government Offices and other government agencies, professional associations and civil society organisations to a Health Crises Forum at KI on 27 November.
Presentations, panel discussions and workshop
KI President, Annika Östman Wernerson, opened the forum from the podium in the Eva and Georg Klein hall in Biomedicum by welcoming everyone and emphasising the importance of commencing a conversation about this question and of building collaborative relationships.
Her speech was followed by presentations by Taha Alexandersson, head of emergency preparedness at the National Board of Health and Welfare, and Johan von Knorring, regional director of Region Uppsala and member of the steering group for the National Coordination, Planning and Management of Health Care in High Alert and War, as well as Jonathan Suk, principal expert in emergency preparedness at the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) and Claes Ivgren, surgeon general of the Swedish Armed Forces.
Taha Alexandersson, Johan von Knorring and Claes Ivgren also participated in a panel discussion with the state secretaries from the Ministries of Education and Health, Maria Nilsson and Miriam Söderberg, and the head of research at the Centre for Disaster Medicine at Linköping University, Carl-Oscar Jonsson.
The event continued with a deepening of the conversation through a number of workshops, where the participants discussed the role of universities in a number of areas related to health crises and total defence. The forum concluded with a mingle and dinner.
Topical issue for universities to continually develop their role
The director of the Centre for Health Crises, Professor Johan von Schreeb, is pleased with how the forum turned out:
“You can clearly see that crisis preparedness, health crisis management and the increase of the total defence are issues that are being discussed. We, as universities, should take our place in that discussion and develop what our role should be. The forum was a way for us to invite people to that discussion and start building a common framework of both what universities can contribute with, but also what is requested, and above all, how we contribute in the best way”.
The very next day, the Health Crises Network, which the Centre for Health Crises is the coordinating node for, gathered for further discussions, in particular on how universities can best collaborate to make sure their expertise and resources do the most good in a health crisis.
The Centre for Health Crises will continue to work on this issue, in collaboration with the Health Crises Network.