University of Gothenburg
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Inger Ekman

Seniorforskare

Institute of Health and Care
Sciences
Telephone
+46 739-81 57 65
Mail
inger.ekman@fhs.gu.se
Visiting address
Arvid wallgrens backe hus 1 o 2
41346 Göteborg
Room number
1327
Postal address
Box 457
40530 Göteborg

About Inger Ekman

About Inger Ekman Inger Ekman was awarded a PhD degree at Umeå University in 1999. In 2007, she was appointed full professor of Care Sciences at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. During the period 2006-2010, she was Head of Institute of the Institute of Health and Care Sciences, and 2010-2012 she was Vice Dean at the Sahlgrenska Academy (The University of Gothenburg Medical Faculty). 2010 through 201, Inger Ekman was the Director of the University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-Centred Care - GPCC (www.gpcc.gu.se).

Research Inger Ekman's research focuses on communication and symptoms in patients with long term illness, and evaluation of person-centred care interventions.

1. The communication part concerns patients' view upon their condition and treatment. Her studies in relation to this are descriptive and interventional studies on adherence, concordance and evaluation of how patients and health professionals´ perceive and manage prescribed treatment.

2. The studies on symptoms are explorative (what words do patients use to describe worsening in their chronic condition?), predictive (patients' self-reported symptoms predict worsening) and interventional (e.g. effects of deep and slow breathing on dyspnea in chronic heart failure).

3. The two research lines described above have fused into a broader research program, Person-centred care, which also involves organizational research.

Inger Ekman has had in excess of 120 articles published in scientific journals.

Research group The main objective of GPCC, which Inger Ekman is the Director of, is to support and implement research within the area of person-centred care. GPCC is built on a large governmental grant (15 million Euro) involving about 30 multidisciplinary research groups for example care sciences, medicine, pedagogics and economics. Inger’s research which, in addition to government funding, has received grants from a number of major charities, is concerned with how patients experience their condition, treatment and care, as well as evaluation of person-centred care. A number of her controlled studies have shown positive results of person-centred care. Read more about GPCC on the centre's webpage www.gpcc.gu.se .

Ekman is also since 2016 the coordinator of COST CARES (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA15222 ), a European initiative, involving 28 countries, which tests the implementation of person-centred care and health promotion within the frame of cost containment with maintained or improved quality of care using testbeds in five countries. Inger also co-ordinated this project’s precursor We Care, in which European key players from academy, health care, business, patient organisations and politics developed a R & I road map on which the current project is based.

Educational activities Lecturer and examiner in PhD level course “The concept ”Person” and person-centred care – philosophical foundation “ at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Frequent lecturer at major national and international conferences and implementation of person-centred care programmes in health care settings.

Clinical activity Clinical research and member of Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra Steering Group, and supports the implementation in Person-centred care at the whole of Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

Key Words Personcentred care, person-centred care, heart failure, patient involvement, shared decision making, collaboration, team work