By sustainable health we mean good health for all, both today and in the future - within planetary boundaries.
However, sustainable health also represents a specific perspective on these issues. It is all about system approaches: Robust health systems must be built in collaboration with other sectors and at the intersection between different disciplines and professions.
In addition, a fundamental restructuring is required: “we must challenge the very systems, hierarchies and structures that created the problems we seek to solve,” as we argue in a commentary article in the Lancet earlier this year.
This also means that we have to look critically at the concept of sustainability itself. The renowned community physician Paul Farmer pointed out that sustainability can be used as a weapon against those who have the least. “It is not sustainable” can be used to justify poor countries having to give up basic health resources that the rich countries take for granted.
SUSTAINIT contributes with a critical and research-based attitude
SUSTAINIT wants to contribute to a critical and research-based attitude towards sustainability and sustainable health. The three centres at the unit - the Centre for Pandemic and One-Health Research (P1H), the Centre for Global Health (CGH) and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE) - contribute in their own way to the testing of new models for sustainable health within their focus areas.
The Centre for Pandemic and One-Health Research supports interdisciplinary research groups
Through the Centre for Pandemic and One-Health Research, we support the establishment of interdisciplinary research groups. The centre’s first internal research project, ‘A Digital Twin for Vaccination Strategies at Geographic Scales’, starts this semester. Led by Einar Broch Johnsen, this innovative project aims to develop a digital twin model to improve our ability to predict infection patterns under different levels of vaccine efficacy against current and future viruses. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts with high levels of expertise from very different fields, such as vaccine development, epidemiology, philosophy of science, informatics and economics. This research group will be an important platform for the centre’s further academic development, under the leadership of the centre’s new head, Gunnveig Gr?deland.
SUSTAINIT also has externally funded research projects
SUSTAINIT also has a number of externally funded research projects, which include diverse topics ranging from antimicrobial resistance, planetary health and the use of medical knowledge in public debates about abortion.
Important contributions to several Lancet commissions
An important part of our research efforts during the first year has also been contributions to as many as four different Lancet commissions with sustainability-related themes. For several years, the Centre for Global Health has served as the secretariat for The Lancet One Health Commission, led by Andrea Winkler. The commission’s report will soon be ready for publication with one of our young research talents, Christina Brux, as lead author.
SUSTAINIT is also the secretariat for a new commission which is a follow-up to the University of Oslo-Lancet commission on global governance for health from 2014. Like the previous commission, the new one is also led by our former rector and SUSTAINIT’s council chairman, Ole Petter Ottersen.
New programme of study established at SHE
On the education side, our Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE) has established a new Honours certificate entitled ‘Education for Sustainable Health’.
Through this study programme, students who have extra capacity have the opportunity to acquire additional expertise in health education from a sustainability perspective alongside their regular study programme. The programme addresses key competences (systems thinking, future-oriented thinking etc.) which are necessary in dealing with complex health challenges, and gives students the knowledge and skills to supervise and teach other health professionals about sustainability.
The first cohort started their studies in January and will be following this semester’s courses in planetary health and sustainability pedagogy under the leadership of Tony Sandset and Ernst Kristian R?dland.
Establishment of national and international meeting places
The establishment of national and international networks and meeting places also plays a key role in SUSTAINIT’s activities. This autumn, the Centre for Global Health hosted this year’s Global Health Norway Conference with the topic of Inequity and health system strengthening. In collaboration with Norad and Women in Global Health Norway, the Centre for Global Health also contributed to making the International Women’s Day 2024 a celebration of women’s efforts for global health. Guests of honour Gro Harlem Brundtland and Sigrun M?gedal shared their experiences as women in a male-dominated field in front of a packed audience.
SUSTAINIT moves to Helsam
On 1 April 2024, the SUSTAINIT – Sustainable Health Unit moved to the Institute of Health and Society (Helsam). Although SUSTAINIT will continue to function as an independent unit, we look forward to developing an even closer collaboration with colleagues at Helsam who work on related issues. Talks about new joint projects are already underway!