Focus of new professorship: the hospital of the future for general practitioners
Professor in general medical practice Peter Vedsted from the Department of Public Health, Aarhus University has just been affiliated with the university as a professor at the University Clinic for Innovative Patient Care Pathways at the Regional Hospital Silkeborg. The aim of the professorship is to develop a hospital that is both the hospital of the future and the general practitioners' hospital.
New forms of coherent, fast and streamlined patient pathways. That is the goal of intensified development collaboration between the Research Unit for General Practice at Aarhus University and the University Clinic for Innovative Patient Care Pathways, which is part of the Diagnostic Centre at the Regional Hospital Silkeborg.
The collaboration will now be significantly intensified when Peter Vedsted, who has been professor at the research unit since 2009, becomes affiliated as a professor at the Regional Hospital Silkeborg's University Clinic for Innovative Patient Care Pathways.
The university clinic was established in 2013 with an affiliation with Aarhus University to strengthen the scientific documentation of the results of the development work.
Focus is on rational diagnosis and accelerated cancer diagnostics based on a "the sooner, the better" approach, where the hospital provides the general practitioner with the best and fastest possible support for diagnosing cancer and other serious diseases.
We must think in new ways
Over the last years, Peter Vedsted’s research has focused on general practice and interaction with the rest of the healthcare system. He has focused in particular on the diagnosing of cancer and the role of general practice in diagnosing patients with symptoms that can be serious illnesses such as cancer.
"Together we can develop a hospital that is both the hospital of the future and the general practitioners' hospital. It needs to benefit both patients and quality levels and also lead to more efficient working, for example by creating patient pathways in a close, interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration. The fundamental task of the healthcare service is to ensure the best possible pathway, and then let patients and their relatives evaluate this”, says Peter Vedsted before continuing:
"Our traditional methods for structuring patient pathways are often fragmented and lead to loss of information, waste and variation. We think in terms of fragmented efforts. The research we are carrying out will document that it is possible to tie things together and to integrate across sectors and to think in new ways of using the hospitals."
In his professorship Peter Vedsted will perform the function of research director and recruit and support younger researchers – and in general contribute to the continued expansion of a strong research environment at the university clinic.
Further information
Peter Vedsted
Department of Public Health and Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
p.vedsted@alm.au.dk
Mobile: +45 2083 8259