vetenskapsrådets kartläggning, utvärdering och rekommendationer ...

2 KARTLÄGGNING OCH UTVÄRDERING AV SVENSK VÅRDFORSKNING – HUVUDRAPPORT OCH UNDERLAG FÖR VETENSKAPSRÅDETS REKOMMENDATIONER
Health and quality of life in long term illness.
Studies on co-morbidity e.g. diabetes and blindness are important. But outputs
are relatively limited to date, except in oral health. The quality of research
in oral health is reasonable with strong performance in some areas,
and there is good evidence of international collaborations. The oral health
group seems to be a small but productive unit.
Women and child health.
Important research questions about how social interventions can improve
health outcomes. Some impressive outputs that seem to be innovative. A
main part of the research here seems to have been performed abroad (Vietnam,
Uganda, India)
Health care organizations, knowledge use and informatics.
Applicants themselves report “slow progress” in this area. The research seems
to be limited to computerized decision support system (CDSS) in nursing.
Comparing the number of staff with the number of main research areas,
including research subjects, it seems as if the research interests are too many
compared to establishing a critical mass for each of the research areas. It also
seems to be too much to be involved in research in maternal mortality and
morbidity in many countries abroad. Research in low income settings is very
important, but also demanding. Establishing collaboration and research in
three different settings must be very resource demanding.
Research collaboration and networks (nationally and internationally)
For all the main research areas there seems to be both regional, national
and/or international collaboration and networks. Especially in the area of
aging and older people there seems to be a high level of collaboration and
networking also through EU projects.
Future plans and potential
Dalarna University will prioritize all the four research areas during coming
years. Multidisciplinary research collaboration will be further supported.
Whether there are potential to develop all the four areas might be questioned
especially when taking the number of staff in consideration.
Overall assessment of strong and weak research areas
Dalarna University is identifying specific research areas. However, four research
areas may be too many compared to the number of staff (including
the number of professors). Of the main research areas the area of aging and
older people seems to have the best potential. In this area there are national
VETENSKAPSRÅDETS KARTLÄGGNING, UTVÄRDERING OCH REKOMMENDATIONER ANGÅENDE SVENSK VÅRDFORSKNING 39