Infrastructure in Health
Research focus on the understanding of interactions between humans and technology, organization, and the environment. Infrastructure in Health also covers the area of bioethics.
At KTH, research and development focuses on systemic aspects of healthcare, on the improvement and integration of the whole healthcare chain, including home care and primary care, as well as specialist care. The future distributed and ambulatory delivery of healthcare requires applied research and development of how systems of medical diagnostics, care equipment, and care facilities should be designed. Healthy buildings and facilities for life-long dwelling with a sustainable infrastructure (so-called “living labs”) are being developed and tested at KTH. To enable higher efficiency and security within healthcare, and to reach acceptable levels of medical systems safety, KTH researchers are active in the development of communication and decision support systems for medical personnel, systems for medical logistics and management, and improvements in the handling, structuring and visualization of medical information. Within the social science area, understanding of interactions between humans, technology, organization and environment is another area where KTH researchers play a role.
Research on the change processes needed to increase and improve the capabilities for innovation emanating from, and implementing into, the healthcare system has been established at KTH, in cooperation with Stockholm County Council (SLL), Karolinska Institutet (KI), and industry. The results coming from the research will be used to build a sustainable capacity to develop new innovative products, devices and processes, which show both effectiveness and safety in the health and social care system. A prerequisite for this approach is a strong and long lasting relationship between technical and scientific specialties within KTH, the medical competences at KI, and healthcare provider organizations.
In the development of new medical technology it is essential that ethical aspects are taken into account throughout the development process. KTH has a Bioethics Group that has a particular interest in the ethics of medical technology and in the transfer of new treatment methods from an experimental phase to clinical practice. Also within this research the connection to KI and Stockholm University (SU) is strong and, together, the universities form the Stockholm Centre for Healthcare Ethics.
Leading research groups in this area
Bulding Services Engineering/Fluid and Climate Technology with competences in the fields of DNA sequencing, gene expression, DNA genotyping, micro- and nanotechnology, bioinformatics, automation and molecular biology.
Human-Computer Interaction focus on human-computer interaction.
Speech Music Hearing focus on research on the communication and interaction between humans via speech and hearing.
Sound and Image Processing focuses on topics that relate to the application of signal processing and information theory to speech, audio, and video signals and images with the aim to facilitate communication.
Design, Work Environment, Saftey and Health (DASH) conduct independent research and development activities directed towards a better understanding of the complex relations between the way we build, design and organize our environment, our production technology and work processes, and the effect of this on human safety, health and wellbeing.
Environmental Physiology investigates influence of environmental factors, such as gravity, ambient pressure and temperature, on physiological functions in humans.
Technology and Quality in Health Care Systems
Research Centers active in this area
Mistra Pharma MistraPharma works to identify human pharmaceuticals that are likely to be of concern to aquatic ecosystems and address the risk for antibiotic resistance promotion in the environment.
Centre for Healthcare Ethics addresses ethical issues in medical care, preventive healthcare and biomedical research. This includes the ethical problems arising in the practice of different medical and nursing professions, plus ethical aspects of the development, use and testing of techniques and methods for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Access At the ACCESS Centre, we’re finding ways to facilitate communication between people, systems and machines.
KTH Computational Science and Engineering Centre The KCSE Graduate School has been established to widen the competence and perspectives of the participating PhD students within the area of computational science and engineering and to provide an opportunity to network with potential collaboration partners in academia and industry.
Centre for Health and Building
Centre for Technology, Medicine and Health The Center for Technology in Medicine and Health, CTMH, is a collaboration between Karonlinska Institute (KI), The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Stockholm County Council (SLL). Its mission is to contribute to the development of Stockholm as a world-class medical technology cluster.