Risk information
We have to take decisions based on risk information all the time. But risk is hard to interpret and difficult to communicate.
Risk research
Risks are often difficult to interpret and communicating risk information is challenging. How people perceive risk depends on several factors, like their education and health literacy. Despite this, we have to take decisions based on risk information all the time.
Lay people, patients, policy makers and health care professionals have to value risk information to decide whether or not to use certain medical treatments, preventive interventions or technology. So in the end, risks concern all of us and it is crucial that risks are communicated clearly to the entire population.
Our research is multi-disciplinary and we use methods from health economy, mainly discrete choice experiments (DCE), and best-worst scaling to capture the complexities of people’s preferences, adding different perspectives to our expertise on risk communicaiton and medical decision making:
Currently, we are looking at the health related decisions that individuals make where they have to interpret difficult concepts and understand risk. This is hard, especially when probabilities become very small. Our research deals with the management of genetic risk information, whether researchers should disclose incidental findings in biobank research, arthritis risk communication, antibiotic resistance, cardiovascular risk communication in primary care, and people's preferences and perceptions when it comes to risk for heart and lung disease.
Managing genetic risk information
Research generates huge amounts of genetic information. How should we handle it? That is what we are trying to find out in a large international research project.
Health data in cyber space
We are part of a Nordforsk funded project that develops recommendations for resilient governance mechanisms for cyberhealth.
Antibiotics resistance
Mirko Ancillotti is looking at antibiotics resistance and the ethical aspects of using peptide-based antibiotics.
Communicating risk for heart disease
Sofia Lavén is studying cardiovascular risk communication in primary care and how general practitioners value and communicate lifestyle and genetic risk factors.
Preconception genetic screening
Amal Matar is looking at the ethical issues of preconception genetic testing and screening, taking the family’s and the individual's perspective into account.
Preferences
Cardiovascular risk information
Åsa Grauman will investigate how research participants perceive their personal risk for cardiovascular disease, and their perceptions on cardiovascular risk information.
Patient preferences
Giving patients a voice in drug development
PREFER is a five year public-private research project where academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry work together to find out when and where patients want, can and should be involved in drug development
Technology, ethics and human rights
Genomics, Enhancement, AI & Robotics
The SIENNA project will address ethical issues in three new and emerging areas with major socio-economic impact.
Your DNA Your SAy
>> Tell us what you think
This is a film-survey experience on DNA and medical data sharing.
Completed research projects
Arthritis risk communication
Euro-TEAM is a 7th framework programme aiming towards early diagnosis and biomarker validation in arthritis management. We are working with risk communication.
Handling incidental findings
How should we handle incidental findings in biobank and -omics research? Jennifer Viberg Johansson's PhD project examined the arguments for and against disclosure of incidental findings.
Citizen health in genomics
We are part of CHIP ME, a community of researchers and stakeholders to promote public-private initiatives in public health genomics.