2020 was a year like no other. It’s been tough. I’ve managed to stay clear of the virus myself (and my closest family), but the necessary restrictions have been hard on us all. At the same time, it’s been a great year for me professionally and personally. It started off with renting out our house in Sweden and returning to Boston for a second semester in Brookline and at OpenNotes. Little did we know then that just a few months later we’d be confined to our small apartment, homeschooling and going for daily walks around the parks of the Emerald Necklace – pondering whether we would be able to safely return to Sweden as planned in July.

But everything worked out and we have now been back home in Uppsala for 6 months. So, what happened professionally during this 2020?

A lot of hard work writing funding applications paid off and two new international research projects were funded!

• NORDeHEALTH
• Beyond Implementation of eHealth

We started the Swedish research project ePrIm, focusing on how the implementation of ehealth in primary care affects the work environment of healthcare professionals.

We published some great research focusing on patients access to their electronic health records:

• Blease, C., Delbanco, T., Torous, J., Ponten, M., DesRoches, C. et al.(2020). Sharing clinical notes, and placebo and nocebo effects: Can documentation affect patient health?. Journal of Health Psychology Epub ahead of print
• Blease, C., O’Neill, S., Walker, J., Hägglund, M., Torous, J.(2020). Sharing notes with mental health patients: balancing risks with respect. Lancet psychiatry, 7(11): 924-925
• Blease, C., Torous, J., Hägglund, M.(2020). Does Patient Access to Clinical Notes Change Documentation?. Frontiers In Public Health, 8
• Hägglund, M., Blease, C., Scandurra, I.(2020). Mobile Access and Adoption of the Swedish National Patient Portal. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 275: 82-86
• Hägglund, M., Helsing, E., Scandurra, I.(2020). Personalized Communication – People with Hearing Loss’ Experiences of Using a National Patient Portal. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 270: 1031-1035
• Peute, L., Lichtner, V., Baysari, M., Hägglund, M., Homco, J. et al.(2020). Challenges and Best Practices in Ethical Review of Human and Organizational Factors Studies in Health Technology: a Synthesis of Testimonies. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics

We transformed courses to online teaching and I’ve been the course director for two new courses at Uppsala University (and I was awarded the title Excellent Teacher!):

• (3HI003) Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Practice, 5.0 credits – Course director
• (3PE051) Implementation of Medical Technology, 5.0 credits – Course director

I also recruited two new PhD students (Annika Bärkås and Irene Muli) who will be working with us in our ongoing research projects around patients access to their electronic health records and online consultations in primary care. The latter topic is also the focus in our new research network where researchers from all over Sweden exchange ideas and collaborate.