Arctic Experience –

Global Focus

Faculty of Health Sciences

UiT - The Arctic University of Norway

Tromsø: Gateway to the Arctic

69°40′N, 18°56′E

Located at the same latitude as

Siberia and Alaska

• Population: 70 000 (urban area)

• Students: 9 500

• The 8th largest city in Norway

• More than 140 nationalities

represented

UiT – The Arctic University of Norway:

The world’s northernmost university

• A classical university with a wide range of subjects taught

• More than 300 programs

• Centers of Excellence, Innovation, Peace and Conflict Transformation, Sami studies, Telemedicine, Women research, Biotechnology, Traditional Medicine etc.

The Faculty of Health Sciences:

Unique comprehensive academic activity

The Faculty of Health Sciences conductsresearch, educates students and shares itsresearch results in almost every area ofhealth science.

• Psychology

• Biology

• Community medicine

• Clinical medicine

• Pharmacy

• Dentistry

And a host of health-related subjects, whichare normally University College subjects.

Programs (students/year)

• Medicine – 6 years (100)

• Dentistry – 5 years (40)

• Psychology – 6 years (35)

• Pharmacy – 5 years (35)

• Bioengineering (20)

• Dental hygiene (18)

• Occupational therapy (24)

• Nursing (145), public health nursing (20), midwife (20)

• Physiotherapy (28)

• Radiography (30)

• Masters in Biomedicine (15), Telemedicine (5-10), Laboratory medicine

Facts - The Faculty of Health

Sciences:

8 departments

970 employees

3000 students

300 PhD-students

Learning by Doing: Proximity in Practice

• Practical training from the very beginning: We work closely with the

University Hospital of North Norway and with the municipalities in

Northern Norway for internships.

• Focus on patient interaction

• Communication between the various health care professions is an

important part of education

• Research-based teaching, meaning that our students are allowed to

participate in ongoing research.

• The medical research study allows students to do a short PhD after

having finished medical school.

Student Clinic:

Dental students Yngve Åkre (behind) and

Patryk D. Larsen treat real patients at

Norway’s most modern dental clinic.

Exchange Programs and Education in English

Exchange programmes:

• The Faculty of Health Sciences provides exchange programmes

through Erasmus, Nordplus, North-2North and Barentsplus.

• Bilateral agreements allow students to apply outside of these networks.

Education in English:

• UiT offers English master’s degrees in telemedicine, biomedicine and

public health.

• Courses in gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics, genetics and geriatrics

are offered in English during the autumn semester of the fourth year of

medical school.

Research for the Future

Our research covers a wide spectrum

from elderly care, dental health,

pharmaceutical studies and psychology

to medical and biological research.

One of our distinguishing characteristics

of our research is the use of population

surveys.

Our extensive biobanks are used by

researchers worldwide.

Notable research:

• Women and Cancer

• The Tromsø Survey

• The Ocean’s Treasures

• Arctic Health Research

NOWAC

– the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study

Random samples of Norwegian women

• 172 000 female participants recruited

1991-2006

• Questionnaire information, repeated up

till three times

• Follow-up through linkage to national

registers, and active search for biopsies

of breast cancer and normal breast

tissue

• Postgenome biobank with 50000 PAX

tubes, plasma and ”buffy coat” (DNA)

The Tromsø Survey

• Population based study in Tromsø, run by UiT

• Starting point in 1974: High cardiovascular mortality in North-Norway

• Study extended to cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, dementia – i.a. chronic diseases in ageing population, and skin diseases, bacterial colonization

• Screenings in 1974, 1979, 1986, 1994, 2001, 2008

• Repeated measurements and new birth cohorts

• Linked to disease and death registries of Norway

• A total of 40,000 participants

• New screenings planned in 2015

MabCent: Screen and characterize bioactive compound from Arctic and sub-Arctic marine organisms

Research, innovation and commercialization

o Anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, immunostimulants, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, antioxidant

o Specific enzyme activities and inhibitors

www.nfh.uit.no/mabcent

Arctic Health Research

With our location “at the edge of the

Arctic”, we naturally tend to focus on

the north, and arctic health research.

Our research covers topics such as

cold, the dark, special nutrition related

issues, the influence of environmental

factors, vitamin D and sunlight in the

far north.

Research collaboration Norway – Russia

UiT collaborates with researchers all over the world, such as Russia.

Examples of collaboration with Russia, are:

• A large arctic study on prenatal care, focusing on the effect of

ecotoxins on foetal development and early childhood.

• A project related to diphteria, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases

and infections in north-western Russia.

• Graduate School in Russia: UiT in collaboration with experts from the

UK, is in the process of building a graduate school in Arkhangelsk,

focusing on cardiovascular disease in Russia.

"If you are interested in arctic health

research like me, Tromsø is the place to

be. The research environment is so

friendly and inclusive.“

Ammar E. Ali Hassan, scientist UiT,

originally from Sudan

uit.no/helsefak