In Sweden, there are currently some 21,000 volunteers ready to respond to help cardiac arrest victims. A smartphone alert system guides them directly to victims – often faster than ambulances. The service, the result of research carried out at the Centrum för Hjärtstoppsforskning, is now ready for export markets.
Professor Hans von Holst is in his element where different disciplines intersect – where medicine meets technology. This is where his ideas have helped create, amongst other breakthroughs, MIPS, a technology that improves the protective properties of everyday helmets. Since 2011, the company has delivered around nine million helmets worldwide.
Children who exercise their working memory also find it easier to concentrate. This was one of the key insights that Torkel Klingberg gained from developing a clinical training programme for children with ADHD. The next step is a research-based tool to increase knowledge of mathematics among the world’s children.
The eye movement of a child reading may indicate an increased risk of dyslexia or reading difficulties. This discovery led to the formation of the company Lexplore that today has operations in Sweden, the UK and the US. Now, the researchers behind the breakthrough are adapting the technology to identify early Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Approximately five million cancer patients have received optimised radiotherapy with the help of RaySearch Laboratories. Today, the company is a global player, offering a management system that optimises the running of entire cancer clinics. And it all started with a Master’s thesis at Karolinska Institutet.
BioArctic is getting closer to producing a drug that substantially limits the development of Alzheimer’s.
SciBase improves the reliability of malignant melanoma diagnoses. The technique is used by skin doctors to support decision-making as an alternative to biopsies in cases of suspected skin cancer.
The introduction of ERAS Society surgical guidelines results in reduced time spent in hospital and improved patient outcomes. The methods, which are being promoted by the company EnCare, have improved care provision in some 23 countries. One of the people behind the initiative was once a young surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital, critical of the status quo.
Aprea Therapeutics AB is working on the development of a new p53-based treatment for cancer. Klas Wiman is one of the company’s founders, and he draws a clear distinction between the roles of researcher and entrepreneur.
Staffan Holmin has developed a microcatheter that delivers drugs and cells directly to the body’s organs via blood vessels. The next step is to take samples from organs that are hard or too risky to reach with other methods. The key to success is an interdisciplinary team with a variety of core skill sets.
