Karolinska Institutet establishes a professorship in innovative care and health care financed by Investor

Investor AB is donating SEK 10 million to the establishment of a professorial chair in the field of innovative care and health care at Karolinska Institutet.

The ageing population, and the growing incidence of chronic disease this entails, poses enormous challenges for health and social care. While continuing breakthroughs in biomedical research provide future opportunities for individualised treatment, patients and their relatives are becoming increasingly insistent on their right to influence the choice and administration of care regimen. Meeting these challenges will therefore require more investment in healthcare science and innovation and in the training of caregivers.

Healthcare research is conducted at the patient end, and analyses how medical studies and innovations are best used in their everyday care, in order to develop new structures and methods for the caregivers in the interests of patient safety and the content, quality and efficacy of care.

"Karolinska Institutet has long had a strong focus on innovation issues," says Karolinska Institutet president, Professor Anders Hamsten. "Investor's donation professorship will make a significant contribution to quality in the healthcare services by enhancing education and research."

"In financing a professorial chair in innovative care and healthcare, our intention is to help Sweden develop world-class welfare services," says Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Investor AB. "With its considerable breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, and the commitment it has shown to this field, Karolinska Institutet is very well suited to developing this professorship over the long term."

Investor's donation will be distributed over five years, with Karolinska Institutet providing the premises, administration and financing of a research appointment tied to the research group created for the chair. Stockholms municipal geriatric care unit and Stockholm County Council have expressed a desire to help finance personnel, and the Royal Institute of Technology wishes to collaborate on a joint centre for innovative healthcare. Recruitment to the professorship will commence without delay.

Investor was founded in 1916 by the Wallenberg family and is today the leading owner of Nordic-based international companies.