19 December 2011
Headings:
Dear friends,
Christmas is soon here and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work during the fall semester in all the different activities. I would also like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
The Faculty Board meeting on 14 December decided to establish the three positions in our pharmacology initiative. The positions are a professorship in pharmacology, a professorship in clinical pharmacology and a university lectureship in physiology with a focus on pharmacology. It is gratifying that this initiative has made such progress that we will be able to announce these positions in the spring. Pharmacology is important for both the training programs and research, and we hope that these positions will attract many applicants.
The Faculty Board also adopted guidelines on promotion at the Faculty of Medicine. According to the university's new employment policy, promotion (from senior lecturer/associate professor to professor and from lecturer/assistant professor to senior lecturer) is no longer a right if the applicant meets certain criteria. Instead, promotion will only be possible if there is a strategic reason for the person to be promoted. This strategic reason can be that the person in question has great significance for research and/or education at the Faculty. According to the new guidelines, the department chairman submits a promotion application for a particular individual and the request must be justified based on strategic considerations. The Faculty Board then determines whether to proceed based on this application. At that point, the application will be forwarded to the appointments committee to evaluate the qualifications of the applicant in relation to established criteria.
The Faculty Board also decided on the financial principles that will serve as the basis for researchers who move to Ideon Medicon Village (AstraZeneca premises). The principle is that increased costs, if any, will not be charged to the Faculty's faculty grants. Based on previous promises from the vice-chancellor, any increase in expenses compared with the current status will be covered by funds from the vice-chancellor. The Faculty Board resolved that to the extent that the additional promised funds from the vice-chancellor do not fully cover increased costs for the faculty grant, the difference will be charged partly to the research grants of the research groups and partly to the Biocare strategic area.
Vice-chancellor Per Eriksson also visited the Faculty Board to inform about Medicon Village. Per Eriksson and Lund University’s chairperson Allan Larsson are members of the board of directors of the Mats Paulsson Foundation, which owns Medicon Village AB, the company that will own the AstraZeneca property and rent out premises to tenants such as Lund University. Per Eriksson is therefore familiar with the negotiations now being conducted at various levels. He stated that in January access will be granted to the AstraZeneca premises and Ideon Medicon Village will become a reality for the approximately 200 researchers from Lund University who expressed interest in moving there. He also stated that in 2011 Lund University prepared for the transition and relocation of the research groups that will move into the premises starting in 2012.
Per said that intensive negotiations are currently underway between Lund University and Ideon Medicon Village. The negotiations from the University’s side are headed by LU Building’s Åsa Bergenudd with assistance from Annette Stambolovski, Carl Borrebaeck and Per Eriksson. It was also decided that matters concerning Ideon Medicon Village should now be transparent. Consequently, a website was launched this week where university administration posts reports on the work and negotiations, as well as the rent that is charged. On 16 December, Per Eriksson (now as Lund University’s Vice-Chancellor) signed a three-year lease on behalf of Lund University at an annual cost of approximately SEK 20 million for about 8,000m2. The website also states that an inventory of local needs will be carried out in December 2011, including the adaptation needs of research groups, which in turn could influence rent levels and date of occupancy. A work group, in which Hugh Connell represents the Faculty of Medicine, is engaged in planning for occupancy and intends to resume work after the holidays. It is good that the Faculty Board has now received information about Ideon Medicon Village, with clear information about the facility provided directly by Per Eriksson. Exciting developments lie ahead.
The nomination process for the Wallenberg Foundation's announcement of multi-year research grants for young researchers is in full swing. A total of 22 researchers from the institutions were nominated and after the faculty management completed the nomination process, 15 of them were sent on to the University of Lund centrally. These 15 nominees will now be sent, along with nominees from other faculties (a total of about 50 nominations), to external experts for evaluation, after which Lund University will ultimately nominate 15 researchers to the Wallenberg Foundation. I am impressed by the strong research that many of our young researchers are conducting, and it would be strange indeed if some of the Wallenberg Academy Fellows were not selected from our Faculty.
Infectious disease medicine initiative
For several years, the Faculty of Medicine has been engaged in major initiatives involving new professors and lecturers in specific subject areas. Previous initiatives of this type have been in psychiatry, pathology, clinical chemistry, medical structural biology and pharmacology.
A similar effort is now underway in infectious disease medicine, a field that is likely to become increasingly relevant over the next few years. As with several of the earlier efforts, external experts reviewed the current status of the Faculty in the field, after which the Faculty management put together a concrete proposal for the initiative. This proposal has now been sent out for comments to the departments and programme boards. The Faculty management proposal for the infectious disease medicine initiative is to establish a professorship in clinical infectious disease medicine, a professorship in basic scientific infectious disease medicine and three lectureships, one each in clinical, laboratory medicine and experimental infectious disease medicine.
University lectureship in medical research
In recent years, as part of a major initiative to address the generational change in our Faculty, vacant posts for senior lecturers in medical research have been periodically announced. The idea has been to build up future research excellence by focusing on the best individuals, which is why the positions were not subject-oriented from the beginning. Many of our younger eminent professors obtained their positions through these posts. Now, candidates for three such university lectureships are undergoing expert review. The three positions attracted 60 applicants and the experts are expected to be ready with their evaluation in March 2012.
Clinical training in the municipalities
Since the 1990s, the Faculty has had to address a difficult matter involving our costs for clinical training in the municipalities. The matter has been a problem ever since the so-called Ädel Reform in the 1990s. Sweden's universities on the one hand and the municipalities on the other hand have had different views on whether the reform meant that the municipalities received funding for supervision for this clinical training (which the universities claim) or the universities will pay for supervision (which the municipalities claim). During our six years in the Faculty management, this issue has been problematic each year, causing planning problems for several of our training programmes. We have now finally reached a compromise and last week I signed this agreement together with the head of Skåne's joint authority (Göran Persson).
I would like to warmly thank everyone who worked over the years to try to resolve the issue, as well as those who worked in the training programmes and struggled with a less than ideal solution. I would particularly like to thank assistant dean Bengt Jeppsson, who succeeded in bringing this matter to a final agreement.
Responsibility for student work environment
In our educational organisation, with programme boards in addition the departments, it has been unclear who is responsible for the working environment of the students. Usually, the department chairman has this responsibility at the University, but since there are committees in charge of planning and implementation of education at the undergraduate and advanced levels in our Faculty, it would be more natural for them to be responsible for the students' working environment. To clarify the situation at the Faculty of Medicine, the matter has been investigated for a long time and a decision has now been taken that this responsibility rests with the chairpersons of the three programme boards. It is important to spread this information within the Faculty, especially to the students. In matters concerning both the physical and the psychosocial work environment, students should turn to the chairman of the relevant board.
Lund University is now formulating a new strategic plan for the period 2012-2014. A proposal was circulated for comment, including to the Faculties. In the proposal the vision is “a world-class university that understands, explains and improves our world and human terms and conditions”, while the overarching goal is “excellence in education, research, innovation and collaboration with the community.” The proposal is available on the university web site and the plan is for the University Board to adopt the strategic plan at its meeting in February 2012.
Expanded education for doctors and nurses
The government has signaled that already in the next budget proposal (which will be published in fall of 2012 and apply for 2013) it will propose a further expansion of education programmes for doctors and nurses in Sweden. This policy will place great demands on the country's universities and colleges, and also in the healthcare setting, to meet the need for expanded clinical training. To respond to this increase regarding medical education, we and Region Skåne have spoken with Linnaeus University and Kalmar County Council about a future collaboration with Kalmar regarding the possibility of both advanced projects and clinical training there. Further discussions will take place during the spring, after the Ministry of Education confers with all universities that offer medical training programmes in January. It will be interesting to see whether this means the beginning of a new historical phase in medical education in Sweden.
Skåne University Hospital and new research center
As the media has reported, Region Skåne has now shelved plans for a “third hospital” in the Malmö/ Lund region, and it intends to continue to invest in both Malmö and Lund instead. I warmly welcome this position. In this context, I have promoted the idea of taking advantage of the future infrastructure initiatives MAX IV and ESS, along with the immediate surrounding area (in the so-called Science City, north of Lund), by focusing on a medical-clinical research facility that could cooperate with the other universities that are planning to build an “Outstation” there, such as Chalmers and Karolinska Institutet. It would be an excellent strength if the different stakeholders in medical research in our region (e.g. Region Skåne, Lund University, Capital Region of Denmark and other participants throughout Medicon Valley) could also collaborate on such a forward-looking facility. So far, this idea is only at the concept stage, and the time horizon is long, perhaps 10 years.
I would especially like to recognize
Maria Lithner, PhD student at HVS, who received a stipend of SEK 55,000 from Södra Sveriges Sjuksköterskehem. Her research focuses on the information needs of patients and families after surgery for colorectal cancer.
Helena Rydell, PhD student at IKVL and a specialist at the Department of Nephrology, and Anna Forsberg, lecturer at HVS, who will receive SEK 30,000 from Stiftelsen för njursjuka (Kidney Disease Foundation) to investigate the factors that influence survival with home dialysis and the opportunities patients have to understand health information in connection with transplantation.
The 2011 Athena Prize has been awarded to researchers and physicians at the University of Lund and Skåne University. Stefan Hansson and Bo Åkerström, IKVL, garnered the award for their diagnostic method which makes it possible to detect pre-eclampsia early in pregnancy.
Marie Enekvist, specialist at the Department of Orthopaedics at Skåne University Hospital in Lund, was named “Best tutor in 2011” by the Swedish Medical Association.
The article “Dural lesions in decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis – incidence, risk factors and effect on outcome” by Fredrik Strömqvist, Bo Jönsson and Björn Strömqvist received the Eurospine Best Full Paper Award 2011. The award ceremony took place at Eurospine’s (the Spine Society of Europe) annual meeting in Milan in October 2011.
PhD student Magnus Sandberg, HVS, was awarded the Lori Lindahl Stipend of SEK 25,000. His research investigates how the introduction of a case manager function (nurse with the primary task of visiting elderly patients who are particularly in need of care) in primary care affects the lives of elderly people who require care and their health care consumption patterns.
New professorships
Guest professors
New senior lecturers:
Recent thesis defenses
Since this is my last Dean's letter to you, I would also like to express my sincere thanks for the confidence entrusted in me to be dean of our successful Faculty for six years. I would like to personally thank each and every one of you. I would especially like to thank the others in the Faculty management, the department chairs, the chairpersons of the programme boards, the members of the Faculty Board, the administrative director and department manager at the Faculty management, the chairpersons of the building boards, the administrative department heads and operations managers at the departments, the Biomedical service and the three buildings, coordinators and leaders for the research areas, training centres and other units, programme directors and others responsible for different parts of our degree programs, all others who took a special responsibility for the Faculty, such as in various boards and committees, student union representatives at the Faculty, the administrative personnel, especially at the Faculty Administration, and everyone else with whom I have interacted in various ways over the years, as well as everyone outside the Faculty with whom I worked in various ways in my capacity as dean, especially within Region Skåne with its various administrations, other parts of Lund University, the Faculties at Malmö University that I worked with, and the Medicon Valley Alliance. Thank you for your cooperation and impressive professional work over these years!
Together we have built the Faculty with its important task, as our vision has said during these years, of continuously breaking new ground for a better life. Much has happened during these six years and we at the Faculty management have summed up our views of the years that have passed in a small booklet entitled “A faculty management sums up”, which can be ordered from our communications department.
I would also like to wish all the best to Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, and the new Faculty management, and above all, I wish everyone all the best in the future. We can be proud that we belong to the Faculty of Medicine!
Kind regards and Merry Christmas,
Bo Ahrén
Page Manager: Katrin Ståhl
Last modified: 2011-12-21
