New Doctorate: Emil K. Thomassen
Digital home follow -up by axial spondyloarthritis - a possible alternative? The doctoral fellow at Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Emil Eirik Kvernberg Thomassen has been researching for the past three years. Now we can congratulate him on the PhD degree.
Pictured: Here is the newly mooded doctor, Emil Eirik Kvernberg Thomassen in the middle, together with her supervisors, Anne Therese Tveter, head supervisor Nina Østerås, Inger Jorid Berg and Eirik Klami Kristianslund.
Thomassen has investigated how patients and health professionals relate to digital home follow -up related to axial spondyloarthritis. The dissertation is entitled Remote Care and Monitoring in Rheumatology Care: Willness, Facilitators and Barriers, Adherence and Feasibility to the Use of Digital Health Technology.
Remonit, an important project for future health services
The results provide important input for future organization of health services.
- The hope is that digital home follow -up can give patients and health professionals more flexibility, says Thomassen.
He explains that patients who do not need to attend the hospital regularly can be followed up digitally. It can free up time and resources for health professionals to closer follow patients with more serious illness.
This research now has a greater knowledge base for using digital solutions in the health care system.
Want Digital Follow -up
- We found that both patients and health professionals were positive about digital home follow -up, says Thomassen.
Healthcare professionals believed that patients' ability to save time and travel expenses was important for patients to use digital home follow -up. Healthcare professionals experienced the absence of physical examination as the biggest barrier against this type of follow -up.
Digital home follow -up works well
The doctoral work focused in particular on whether digital follow -up can be implemented in practice and how the tools are used by the patients.
- Most patients followed up well. They reported their own disease activity either every month or every quarter, says Thomassen.
Exercise as medicine
In rheumatology, repeated studies show that exercise is good medicine. Therefore, it was of interest to also measure physical activity in the study patients.
- It turned out that the activity clocks we used to measure physical activity had low support over time. Many people simply stopped using them, he says.
He points out that there may be various reasons for this. One of them may be that the patients themselves had to submit the measurements of physical activity.
Still, Thomassen's conclusion is clear:
Digital home follow -up was well received by patients with low disease activity.
- Our findings can help shape future solutions where this type of follow -up becomes more accessible and widespread, he says.
A comprehensive study
In order to carry out the study of health professionals' attitudes to digital follow -up, 130 health professionals from rheumatological departments responded around Norway on a questionnaire.
In order to examine patients' attitudes as well as compliance with digital follow -up, data from a major research project, Remonit study was used.
In the study, 243 patients with axial spondyloarthritis participated. They were recruited at the rheumatological outpatient clinic at Diakonhjemmet Hospital. The study was going on for 18 months.
They were randomly divided into three groups: One received digital home follow -up, one regularly received regular control of attendance in hospitals, and one received follow -up when they themselves requested it.
Everyone had low disease activity and was treated with stable doses of various drugs within the DMARDS group. These drugs should cushion inflammation of the joints and tissue and slow down the disease.
Kvernberg Thomassen extends a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the recruitment and everyone who joined the study.
Thanks to the supervisors
- I also really want to thank my supervisors, who have stood for the research and for me, says Kvernberg Thomassen.
Nina Østerås has been the main supervisor, and Anne Therese Tveter, Inger Jorid Berg and Eirik Klami Kristianslund have been a side of side. Everyone is employed at Diakonhjemmet Hospital.
"It's an absolutely super bunch I look forward to," he says enthusiastically.
Committee
The defense took place at Diakonhjemmet Hospital. The dispute leader was Reidun Birgitta Jahnsen from the University of Oslo. First Opponent was Norelee Kennedy from the University of Limerick. The second opponent was Johannes Knitza from Phillips University of Marburg. Maren Falch Lindberg was committee leader
PhD at Diakonhjemmet Hospital
Thomassen has taken the doctorate (PhD) at Diakonhjemmet Hospital. He was professionally affiliated with the National Competence Service for Rheumatological Rehabilitation (NKRR), which later became part of the Unit for Health Service Research and Innovation (EHI).
All research and data collection that is part of the doctorate has been rooted at Diakonhjemmet Hospital.
The doctoral project has been funded by Health South-East, with one month's extension from Diakonhjemmet Hospital.
Emil Eirik Kvernberg Thomassen began as a fellow in August 2021. He delivered the dissertation in December 2024.
He has also taken courses and followed the research education at the University of Oslo. The degree is formally from the University of Oslo.
Trial lecture
The doctoral test started with the trial lecture where Thomassen gave a well -formulated post for interested audience. The title was evidence-based innovations: digitalally supported patient pathways for osteoarthritis.
Want to research further
Since August 2024, Kvernberg Thomassen has worked in a 20 per cent position as a physiotherapist at the Norwegian Rheumatological Rehabilitation (NBRR). He hopes to continue in this position.
- I also really want to research further. But it has been difficult to find time to write new applications after I submitted the dissertation. But I have a project I hope to get started, he says.
Read more:
Here you will find links to more information:
https://www.med.uio.no/.../trial.../2025/thomassen-emil.html
https://www.med.uio.no/.../dispu.../2025/thomassen-emil.html
