Ongoing projects
@IR-FGS
Evidence-Based Lesion Recognition App for Diagnosing Female Genital Schistosomiasis
- Project coordinator: University of Agder
- UiA Project manager: Santiago Gil Martinez, UiA
- Project funds from: The Norwegian Research Council
- Project duration: 2025 - 2026
- Project webpage UiA
The @IR-FGS project aims to develop and commercialize a mobile application to improve diagnosis and training for female genital schistosomiasis (FGS). This disease, a neglected tropical disease related to poverty, affects over 56 million women and girls, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. Misdiagnosis of FGS often occurs due to symptoms that resemble those of sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer, which can lead to stigma and inappropriate treatment.
SAKO
Service robots as work support in municipal health and care services
- Project coordinator: Centre for e-health, UiA
- UiA Project leader: Professor Mariann Fossum, UiA
- Project funds from: The Norwegian Research Council
- Project duration: 2025 - 2029
- Project webpage UiA
Service robots as work support in municipal health and care services (SAKO) is a research project to be carried out in collaboration between Arendal, Grimstad and Risør municipalities, as well as the University of Agder (UiA). The project also includes national and international researchers in mechatronics and e-health. The aim is to develop new knowledge about how service robots can support routine tasks in nursing homes. Service robots are "off the shelf" technology, such as cobots (collaborative robots) and autonomous mobile robots.
The project is led by the Centre for e-health at UiA and is a collaboration between researchers and the municipalities. The background is that staff in nursing homes experience increasing workload, and relief is important to improve both patient safety and the quality of care and treatment. The SAKO project will map which tasks health personnel in nursing homes need relief for, find out which robots can relieve these tasks, and test the robots in three nursing homes. In addition, the project will examine how well prepared nursing homes, staff, patients and relatives are to adopt service robots. The last part will look at the potential gains for the municipalities, healthcare personnel and patients, as well as ethical and legal challenges with such use. The aim is to develop a model and recommendations for the use of service robots in nursing homes.
UPSCALE
Unfolding the processes between user needs and health and welfare technology in sociotechnical transition of health and care services
- Project Coordinator: Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, Finland
- Project Funding from: The framework of the co-fund partnership of Transforming Health and Care Systems, THCS - EU Horiozon Europe +national funding from each partner country
- Contact Person: Elin Thygesen
- Project Duration: 2024-2027
- Project homepage
- UiA project webpage
As population is ageing and declining, organizing health and care services faces many challenges. Health and welfare technology upholds vast expectations in resolving those challenges. Little is however known about expectations, needs and experiences of different people as health and welfare technology users. Such knowledge is critical for decision making.
The international UPSCALE project constructs knowledge with health and welfare technology users and, based on that, produces transition pathways for policymakers and other stakeholders.
UPSCALE brings together four research partners: Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT (Finland) as the coordinator, Utrecht University (The Netherlands), Sophiahemmet University (Sweden) and University of Agder (Norway). The three-year project started on 1 May 2024.
UPSCALE investigates the needs of various health and welfare technology users, such as older adults, their interaction with the health and care service structure, and how health and welfare technology -related services could be developed or built on the user-centred understanding.
User data are gathered via interdisciplinary methods spanning from interviews and participatory knowledge co-creation to a broad international survey, and both from the society level and country-specific case studies. The forerunning European survey’s results are expected to create value for both the civil society, public sector, and industry. UPSCALE’s findings will be formalized into a set of policy briefs.
Centre for e-health at the University of Agder (UiA), leads UPSCALE’s work in the examination of the current understanding of users of health and welfare technology as part of transitions. The centre is bringing its expertise in knowledge in participatory methods, user-driven innovations, communication and social inclusion to UPSCALE.
ENACT
Ethical risks assessmeNt of Artificial intelligenCe in practice
- Project Coordinator: SINTEF DIGITAL
- Project Funding from: The Research Council of Norway
- Contact Person: Leonora Onarheim Bergsjø
- Project Duration: 2023-2025
- Project website
In this project, researchers will collaborate with Norwegian businesses to develop a tool for effectively testing whether digital solutions are ethically sound. The project aims to both design a method for ethical testing and develop training programs so that the method can be learned by all those developing technology for the Norwegian market.
The method will be tested with a wide range of Norwegian businesses from the sectors of education, health and welfare, finance, and transportation, including large, medium-sized, and small businesses from across the country: NAV, DNB, Posten, Medsensio, and Hypatia Learning.
The project team consists of SINTEF DIGITAL (project owner), Østfold University College at the Faculty of Teacher Education and Languages, Norwegian Open AI Lab at NTNU, Department of Informatics at UiO, and the CentrE for e-Health at UiA, as well as University College London and Imperial College London. Additionally, the research network Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium (NORA) and the innovation network Cluster for Applied AI/Smart Innovation Norway are central to the project, along with the Norwegian Council for Digital Ethics (NORDE).
DUALSAVE-FGS
Dual diagnosis by Spectral Artificial Visual Examination for Female Genital Schistosomiasis and cervical cancer. Digital, new, low-cost, and simple diagnosis and training
- Project Coordinator: Oslo University Hospital
- Project Funding from: Horizon Europe
- Contact Person at the Center for e-Health: Santiago Gil Martinez
- Project Duration: 2022-2026
- Project Website
Approximately 300 million African girls and women are at risk of the poverty-related disease Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), and 400 million are at risk of cervical cancer. Most of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa. FGS can be mistakenly confused with cervical cancer or a sexually transmitted infection and treated accordingly. Women may have FGS lesions, have unexplained bloody or foul-smelling discharge, or pain, and be at increased risk of HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV).
FGS is best diagnosed by visual examination of the shape and color of the lesions on-site. However, healthcare professionals require several weeks of training where the disease is seen frequently, and often they need a colposcope to recognize FGS. Worldwide, there are only a handful of healthcare professionals skilled in FGS diagnosis.
A multispectral, highly innovative colposcope attached to a smartphone, designed by an SME to recognize cervical cancer, will be adapted and validated for FGS diagnosis in this project. In three countries with different FGS epidemiology and different practices for gynecological examinations of women, a clinical study will be conducted in line with the EDCTP agenda, with the ultimate goal of a patent and local production. Drawing on experiences from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, an e-learning course will be designed and tested. Equipment, consultations, and training will be adapted to practical conditions (cultures, unstable power/internet, poverty, vulnerability).
As recommended by WHO and the "HPV faster approach," diagnosis should be on-site. Protocols for management and data collection will be developed in collaboration with national health authorities in South Africa, WHO, and also in one European country. This is an initiative to promote clinical research and digitalization for vulnerable populations. Hundreds of doctors and researchers will receive training in FGS, clinical studies, and social sciences.
CoTech
Co-Created Health Technology
- Project Coordinator: University of South-Eastern Norway (USN)
- Project Funding from: The Research Council of Norway
- Contact Person at the Centre for e-health: Ragni Macqueen Leifson
- Project Duration: 2022 – 2028
CoTecH is coordinated and led by USN, and involves a total of 28 partners from the healthcare industry, health services, users, and research actors in the Viken and Vestfold and Telemark counties, as well as from other parts of the country, Sweden, and Ireland.
The project aims to identify needs, develop, test, and implement digital health services and health technology. The overarching goal is to build a regional, leading interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration in digital health and technology between the healthcare industry, health services, and USN, which will have national significance and international recognition.
eCardiacRehab
- Project Coordinator: Bergen University Hospital
- Project Funding from: The Research Council of Norway, Helse Vest, InnoMed
- Contact Person: Leonora Onarheim Bergsjø
- Project Duration: 2023-2027
- Project website
In the project eCardiacRehab, a new digital cardiac rehabilitation will be developed and tested for patients who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention. eCardiacRehab is a digital program that patients with coronary artery disease follow throughout their rehabilitation, at home in their own living room. This is a multimodal and interdisciplinary innovation and research project, with different work packages and many stakeholders involved.
Associate Professor Leonora O. Bergsjø is leader of WP2.5 within Etichs.
Completed projects
Simulation (VR) as a training and teaching method for service providers in services for people with intellectual disabilities
- Project Coordinator: Arendal Municipality
- Project Funding from: Norwegian Directorate of Health
- Contact Persons at the Center for e-Health: Ellen Ersfjord, Hege Mari Johnsen, Sofie Wass
- Project Duration: 2023-2024
Main Objective of the Project
To increase employees' competence in coercion, self-determination, and diet in services for people with developmental disabilities with the aim of promoting a healthier diet for individuals with developmental disabilities receiving municipal services.
Project Sub-objectives
Sub-objective 1: Investigate whether and how VR can be used in learning activities concerning diet and self-determination, coercion and power in services for people with developmental disabilities.
Sub-objective 2: Design and develop VR scenarios in collaboration with people with developmental disabilities, relatives, and service employees.
Sub-objective 3: Test and evaluate the effectiveness of simulation scenarios (VR scenarios).