New collaboration to improve drug use off to a perfect start

As we live longer, drugs and healthcare gain increasingly prominent positions throughout our society. This development is noticeable not least in Sweden, where the cityscape is often dominated by pharmacies and adverts for online doctors. This places demands on pharmaceutical and medical research to provide the knowledge needed to optimize the benefit of healthcare resources, and at the Faculty of Pharmacy, an extensive investment in improved drug recently left the starting blocks.

“When I was recruited to Uppsala University in 2020, I became the first piece of the puzzle in an interdisciplinary investment in the patient and community domains of pharmacy. We have since put a lot of energy into education and building for a firm future. Along the road, we have developed several valuable collaborations, and the fact that we are now working in the same corridor as our scientifically closest colleagues opens up for further exchanges of knowledge and ideas,” says Björn Wettermark, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology.

The research group in Pharmacoepidemiology is today sharing the premises at Uppsala's Biomedical Center with teams led by Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong and Elisabet Nielsen, working with a focus on Social pharmacy and Clinical pharmacy and pharmacotherapy respectively. Their common denominator is the use of drugs, but perspectives differ: Pharmacotherapy and clinical pharmacy concentrate on individuals, Pharmacoepidemiology focus on a population perspective and Social pharmacy highlights the role of drugs in society.

“Our groups already share several ongoing collaborations, and that we now also meet daily at the coffee maker sparks countless spontaneous conversations, enabling us to get to know each other even better. This, in turn, generates continuous creative flows and improves our abilities to benefit from each other's skills and networks. For us, a relatively new and still axpanding group, this is of course an extremely stimulating environment to work in and a contributing factor to that we are now ready to formulate a strategy for our scientific future,” says Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong, Professor of Social Pharmacy.

Despite the fact that the smell of freshly painted is still appearent, most office doors are wide open and the corridor activity is substantial. In a space outside the kitchen, a common breakfast is laid out for an early morning meeting and a researcher notes the obvious: Only a few weeks after opening the premises, the interdisciplinary environment we are standing in is proof of the importance that attendance and unplanned interactions have to build an inspiring, allowing and creative atmosphere.

“We have deliberately distributed the rooms in order to merge groups, teachers and researchers, and I am convinced that this is a strong contributing factor to our fruitful collaborations, characterized by effective coordination, straightforward dialogue and a solution-oriented approach. This generates both confidence and a constructive dialogue, which in turn is of benefit to both education and research. So even if we have only just left the platform, it is safe to say that we are already on the right track,” says Ann-Marie Falk, Lecturer in Pharmacotherapy.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt