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The Key to Solution is Dialogue

Workshop discussions is at the heart of Uppsala Health Summit. At the summit in June, there will be eight different workshops; four on each day for the delegates to choose from. Selection of workshop is made once we have confirmed your seat at the Summit.

Workshops at the summit

Precision Medicine in Cancer Care

This workshop will stimulate a frank discussion on how to make precision medicine deliver on its promises for individual patients. What ethical, managerial and financial dilemmas arise with the rapidly evolving high-throughput molecular analysis, digital medical imaging and drug development technologies? Can the pioneering precision medical cancer research in high-income countries also profit the needs of the individual cancer patient in other parts of the world?

Precision medicine is a contemporary development of medical practice with the aim to “match the proper medical treatment to the right patient”. By definition, precision medicine takes a serious look at the individual and becomes interested in the unique features and manifestations of disease in each and every patient. Cancer exemplifies the modern trend of precision medicine to an even deeper and more complex level because, even within a single patient’s body, tumors may exhibit diverse pathophysiological properties that often complicate the efficient treatment of this group of diseases.

Inspirational Speakers:

Workshop team:

  • Aristidis Moustakas, Lucia Cavelier & Eva Molin, SciLifeLab, Uppsala

Biobanking for Global Cancer Care

This workshop will draw upon the results from the EU Horizon 2020 project B3Africa, and develop basic guidelines for a sustainable implementation of biobank infrastructures in all parts of the world, including issues such as ownership, access and sustainable management.

Biobanks are a critical resource to research and development of cancer diagnostics and treatments. The majority of established biobanks are developed with patient material from patients in Europe or the US. To truly become useful on a global scale, biobanks need to be established in low- and middle-income countries, reflecting these populations’ genotypes, connecting them with phenotype data.

Sharing of data and resources between biobank infrastructures in different countries will require a minimum ethical and legal framework for both inclusion of biological samples and for access to the biobanks.

Inspirational Speaker:

Workshop team:

  • Erik Bongcam and Tomas Klingström, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Clinical Value and Price Setting for New Cancer Drugs

In this workshop, we prepare for a discussion on the opportunities for a more balanced understanding of the true value of new cancer drugs in the regulatory process for marketing approval, and to identify basic building blocks for fair pricing strategies.

New substances for cancer treatment are costly to develop, and when introduced on the market, many healthcare providers must refrain from offering them to their patients, due to the high cost. In addition, the majority of these treatments are developed for limited patient groups, and released at an early phase of development. The actual benefit for society, or for larger groups of patients, is thus not available at the time of market release. According to which principles should healthcare payers evaluate treatments? Can we develop new thinking for a more efficient risk sharing between industry and healthcare?

While conditions for market release are fairly similar in many countries (EU and US regulations are not identical, but similar), the rules for "reimbursement" vary. However, most healthcare systems experience similar needs to control their budgets.

Inspirational Speakers:

  • Dr. Filip Josephson, Clinical Assessor, Swedish Medical Products Agency
  • Mr. Deepak Khanna, Senior Vice President and Regional President, EMEAC Oncology, MSD

Workshop team:

  • Lars Lööf, Region Uppsala and New Therapies Council
  • Tomas Salmonson, Swedish Medical Products Agency
  • Hans Hägglund, Uppsala University Hospital
  • Henrik Lindman, Uppsala University Hospital

Long Term Care for Cancer Survivors

In this workshop, we will gather different stakeholders perspective on this development and together find answers to a set of critical questions: Where and by whom will patients be managed optimally? Do we need specialized departments for post cancer treatment? Cancer survivors declared cancer free may currently after a number of years no longer be followed up by oncologists or other specialized cancer experts. Will this need to change for patients on or after targeted cancer therapy treatment due to the new spectrum of side effects? What do these changes do to our general health care systems? Which guidelines do we need to develop and implement for monitoring?

Cancer as a chronic disease among others is becoming a reality. With increased survival rates, quality of life during and after treatment is getting more attention. Health systems need to prepare not only to treat more patients during longer periods of time, but also to treat in a different way; with the arrival of precision medicine, the adverse effects have changed and are different than those brought about by traditional cytotoxic drugs.

Long term survivors in need of care for adverse effects from targeted therapies are becoming a growing patient population and large cancer centres are learning to diagnose and treat them. Guidelines on management are being developed. In the ongoing paradigm shift, patient advocacy groups are also actively taking part in improving their and their health care persons knowledge of (life with) side effects.

Inspirational Speakers:

Workshop Team:

  • Birgitta Grundmark, Uppsala Monitoring Centre
  • Ulla Martinsson, Uppsala University Hospital
  • Marianne Jarfelt, Sahlgrenska University Hospital

Towards Useful Biomarkers for Cancer Care

In this workshop, the controversies, potentials biases, and considerations relative to the clinical application of blood biomarker assays for cancer screening and management will be discussed. What technical, epidemiological, legal and organizational requirements must be included in the analysis for it to be clinically relevant?

Many healthcare decisions of today and in the future will be based on the results of tests that look at the presence, absence, or quantity of biomarkers. Hopes are high for their potential, especially in oncology. But biomarkers come with a number of issues that must be resolved.

Despite the large numbers of scientific publications reporting new cancer biomarkers, very few of them are of sufficient quality to be approved by a regulatory body such as the FDA. There are several known reasons for this failure, namely study design shortcomings in discovery and validation (low statistical strength, population based vs ad hoc, inappropriate statistical model, sample quality shortcomings, one tumor type at a time vs normal population).

Inspirational Speakers:

Workshop Team:

  • Tobias Sjöblom, Uppsala University & Henrik Rönnberg, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Using Data for Better Cancer Treatments

This workshop will focus on practical challenges and opportunities related to the use of existing data for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Critical incidents will be used to inspire the discussions in the workshop on how data can be utilized today and in new ways in the future. Visions will be developed about how various types of existing data can be used for diagnosis and treatmetn of cancer in the future.

Across the world, information technology has the potential to radically transform the way health services are delivered. This is especially true for cancer care. The amount of published data in cancer research has exploded these last years and thereby opening up opportunities. Simultaneously, the possibilities for patients and healthcare personnel to register data “in real life”, measuring treatment response, have never before been so great. There are great expectations that this development will enable society to offer better cancer care in a more efficient and more equitable way. But without systems that help us collect, process, analyze and visualize data, this risk to become an under-utilized, or even inert, resource.

Inspirational Speakers:

  • Professor Bengt Sandblad, Department of Information Technology, Division of Visual Information and Interaction, Uppsala University, Sweden

Workshop Team:

  • Åsa Cajander & Jonas Moll, Uppsala University
  • Christiane Grünloh, TH Köln, Germany and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Implementing Physical Exercise in Cancer Care

This workshop aims to develop ideas for how to target implementation barriers and incentives for promotion and organization of physical exercise among cancer patients during and after cancer treatment both within and outside healthcare. Cultural aspects, legislation, financial incentives, subsidized costs, priorities, knowledge and skills are issues that need to be included.

Strong evidence suggest that physical exercise reduces the risk of developing several types of cancer. In addition, recent research shows extremely positive effects on cancer treatment response from physical training during and after. Physical training improves physical capacity, reduces treatment-related side-effects, decreases the risk of post-treatment co-morbidity and cancer recurrence and improves survival rates.

Knowing this, which are the best ways to include physical training as a regular part of cancer treatment?

Healthcare cannot be expected to provide physical exercise facilities and personnel to fully meet the needs along the cancer control continuum. Clinical strategies to support and facilitate exercise during cancer treatment and involvement of actors outside healthcare are therefore necessary.

Inspirational Speakers:

  • Dr. Martijn M Stuiver, Associate Professor, Amsterdam University and Researcher, Netherlands Cancer Institute.
  • Professor Mike Kelly, Senior Visiting Fellow, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge
  • Šarūnas Narbutas, Cancer Patient, President of Lithuanian Cancer Patient Coalition (POLA), Lithuania

Workshop Team:

  • Ingrid Demmelmaier, Birgitta Johansson & Karin Nordin, Uppsala University.

Cancer Drug Repositioning

This workshop aims to initiate a dialogue on the first steps to take towards a strategy for making drug repositioning clinical study designs more accessible and more attractive, as well as principles for the use of candidates for drug repositioning as last line treatment in an ‘innovative practice’setting, considering i.a. scientific and ethical points of view.

Development of new cancer drugs is an extremely costly process. Repositioning of already approved substances can in some cases open up treatment possibilities for groups of patients when there are no other options left.

Currently, repositioning of drugs is partly hampered by the high costs involved in performing necessary clinical trials. When no commercial sponsor of the trials is available, healthcare and patients risk being left with an opportunity they cannot pursue. However, drug development based on repositioning, as well as individual patient use of drug repositioning candidates, run into problems from scientific, economic, ethical and healthcare resources points of view.

New strategies are needed, including more efficient study designs, that allow for more patients to participate to the possible benefit for both themselves and for scientific progress in the field.

Inspirational Speakers:

Workshop leader:

  • Peter Nygren, Uppsala University Hospital and Uppsala University

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