Henrik sjövall sahlgrenska
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Henrik Sjövall: I come from a stormy sea!
CHRONICLE. Henrik Sjövall, Professor Emeritus of physiology and pathophysiology of the gastrointestinal tract, looks back at a long career and concludes that not everything was better in the past.
Sahlgrenska University Hospital advertises with the phrase “Best clinical research in the country” (image). Whether or not that is true really depends on how you measure it, but research is certainly now considered a natural part of work at Sahlgrenska. This workplace has around 1, clinicians with PhDs and nine out of ten want to stay and continue to conduct research while working at the hospital. It has become entirely natural to proudly describe a recently approved scientific project over coffee rather than more mundane matters.
Treacherous waters between research and health care
This was definitely not the case when I began my clinical training in the mids. “Rat doctor” was not an entirely unusual epithet at that time, referring to people who had done their doctoral studies at preclinical institutions. They were never really taken seriously and perilous times lay ahead–the treacherous waters between research and medical care. I’ve
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Henrik Sjövall: The sea has taught me to look far ahead – about Narrative Medicine and the clinical horizon
COLUMN. Rational algorithms and checklists are increasingly a part of everyday life for medical doctors, and short hospital stays are rapidly becoming a more important measure of outcome than quality, Henrik Sjövall writes in his latest column. But through lessons from the humanities, medicine can regain its ability for reflective conversations, says Sjövall, who emphasizes Narrative Medicine as an important counterforce.
“The sea has taught me to look far ahead.” That is actually a quote from Evert Taube. Taube was a very interesting person who called his ballads, for which he became best known, “archipelago crap”. He wanted to be regarded as a novelist and researcher instead. His many interests included medieval troubadours, and he is said to have been very disappointed when he was not elected to the Swedish Academy.
This is not an uncommon phenomenon. During my long journey through health care and academia, I have noticed that people often want to be good at something other than what they are good at. Talented clinicians want to become researchers or administrat
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Henrik Sjövall: How hard can it be?
COLUMN. Following Henrik Sjövall’s evaluation of the system that supports clinical research in Sweden, the Swedish Research Council has now begun to implement the proposals he made in his report. Among other things, the Swedish Research Council is now establishing a new position as sekreterare general in clinical research. In a commentary in Akademiliv, Sjövall offers some entertaining insights into the process that led to the report.
The trademark of clinical research can in some aspects be questioned. Research should be “curiosity driven” and “explorative.” Clinical research seems quite simple; it often involves converting a complex question into a straight answer: to introduce or not to introduce? To treat or not to treat? That should not be so difficult, should it?
I have experienced happiness when you come up with a new hypothesis
I began my relatively mediocre scientific career as an animal experimental researcher in systems physiology, making a stopover in an attempt to understand an extremely variable motor program in the human intestine and ending up as a support individ on a team that dealt with the most complex molecules w