Remedy seminar 2025 gathered researchers, health professionals and partners from various disciplines to two days of insightful lectures, engaged discussions and strategic collaboration. With 130 participants at Sanner Hotel, the fourth remedy seminar became an important meeting place to promote research on rheumatic diseases.
Main themes and professional highlights
The seminar was opened by Remedy Deputy Director, Ida K. Bos-Haugen. She had led the work of developing the extensive program. She thanked the members of the program committee. "Their work has been invaluable for the design of the seminar, and we are proud to present this solid and the program to Remedy's members," said Bos-Haugen.
Professor Espen A. Haavardsholm, director of Remedy, presented the center's status. He was visibly proud of all the employees at the center achieved last year, when he presented the full annual report for 2024.
CEO of Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Kari-Jussie Lønning, highlighted Remedy's importance to the hospital and how the research center is a key player in rheumatology. She opened by emphasizing that Remedy means a lot to the hospital.
International experts provided insights from their own research fields
- Emma Dushes (Uwe Bristol, UK) illuminated how qualitative and mixed Methods design provides insight into patient experiences and treatment effects.
- Camilla Svensson (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) challenged our understanding of the role of chronic pain and the role of the immune system.
- Désirée van der Heijde (Leiden University, the Netherlands) gave an overview of the development of axial spondyloarthritis, from classification criteria to clinical guidelines.
- Christina Bergmann (University of Erlangen, Germany) presented the potential of Car-T therapy for patients with rheumatic diseases, a treatment that can cause lasting remission in autoimmune diseases.
- Ian Wallace (University of New Mexico, USA) explained how osteoarthritis can be understood as a mismatch disease, influenced by modern lifestyle, physical inactivity and dietary changes.
Research dissemination
Language and dissemination also received attention through an engaging lecture by Helene Uri : "Help, I need to convey! How to make complicated topics understandable?" She shared concrete advice on how researchers can write clearly and captivating a wider audience.
She emphasized that good dissemination is never banal - it is rather about meeting the reader where they are. Researchers must be aware that different target groups have limited prior knowledge of a field, and adjust the communication accordingly.
Uri also pointed out that popular science dissemination should be structured opposite by scientific publications: Start with the conclusion. In addition, she advised researchers to limit method descriptions when addressing a wide audience.
Workshops with professional discussions
- Masterclass with Emma Dushes: Participants received feedback on their qualitative studies.
- Challenging Our View on Chronic Pain: Discussions on how autoantibodies affect pain.
- The Promise of Car-T for Patients With Rheumatic Diseases: How Norway can establish a Car T cell plant for rheumatological patients.
Posters were also set up for all the work packages, where the leaders of these willingly presented and discussed the content and significance of the field.
In addition, many of the Remedy researchers presented their own projects to a discussion-wide audience in smaller groups. With them home, the researchers got good input to further improve their projects.
Young Researcher Program
Researchers who are early in their research career have an arena through this program. Last year's scholarship recipients made posts on their research:
Lena Bugge Nordberg presented her work on climate footprints in clinical trials, while Abel Tesfaye and Øyvind Bakke presented new approaches to immunofenotyping and juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Lively debate
The seminar ended with a lively debate between postdoctoral fellow Eirik Ikdahl , who himself is still in "State of Runners High" and Ole Petter Hjelle , known as the "training doctor", even very often in training clothes.
The theme was "Treatment of comorbidity in rheumatic disease - medicines or lifestyle interventions?"
Hjelle highlighted training as the best and most cost -effective medicine, while Ikdahl pointed to a number of RCTs, where drugs had better or as good effect as exercise and were not more expensive than the wear and tear on sneakers. After this friendly, but quite competitive debate, both concluded to position themselves as Ole Brumm: Yes, thank you, both.
The seminar summarized
Participants emphasized the value of the interactive sessions and opportunities for collaboration across disciplines.
"With strengthened knowledge exchange and new research ideas, Remedy looks forward to continuing forward-looking research," said Remedy leader Espen A. Haavardsholm on the tamp of the day when he again thanked all the participants and those who had made a special effort to organize the event.
Many of us who were there are already looking forward to next year's seminar!
 |
||
