Spotlight session

Health and welfare technology and ageing: a Nordic perspective

Organiser and Chair

Christine Gustafsson is a professor in Health Care Science at Sophiahemmet University in Stockholm. She is also an affiliated researcher at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna/Västerås. Her professional background is Registered Nurse. Her research primarily focuses on the field of health and welfare technology from a user-centric perspective. The interdisciplinary research field of health and welfare technology, with a user-centric focus, involves the study of the values and benefits that various users can gain from the technology. There are high expectations regarding how health and welfare technology should lead to various improvements, but limited research exists to demonstrate whether this is indeed the case.

Professor Gustafsson initiated and actively participates in the leadership of the Nordic Health and Welfare Technology Research Network, which is supported by the Nordic Welfare Centre via the Nordic Council of Ministers. She was one of the innovators and creators of the robotic cat, JustoCat. Additionally, she is a member of the board of the Swedish research financier Forte and a member of the Swedish Elderly Care and Social Insurance Minister’s Council for Elderly Care Research.

Content and structure

The session will present research needs from a municipal viewpoint and discuss how research and academia can support today’s and future elderly care challenges and development. The session will include a brief presentation of research requirements, ongoing and published research in the field of health and welfare technology in Nordic elderly care, along interactive activities involving the audience.

Session participants

• Christine Gustafsson, Professor, Sophiahemmet University and Mälardalen University, Sweden
• Johan Lindström, Director, Department of Health and Welfare, Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden
• Anna Forsman, Associate professor, Åbo akademi, Finland
• Elisabeth Holen-Rabbersvik, Associate professor, University of Agder, Norway
• Signe Louise Yndigegn, Associate professor, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Viktoria Zander, Senior lecturer, Mälardalen University, Sweden
• Halldor S Gudmundsson, University of Iceland, Iceland
• Maria Hansson, PhD student, Sophiahemmet University and Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden