After the end of our fourth week of in-field clinical observations, being already five weeks at the clinic, Team Infection has been very busy trying to squeeze all the activities we could in a week (as we always try to do).

Monday started with a meeting with Lena Henning, HR Director of Danderyds Sjukhus. We discussed, along with Team Obstetrics and Sjoerd Hassl, about the roles of HR at the hospital, personnel issues, branding and present & future challenges for Danderyds, as well as for the Swedish healthcare system.

More staff shadowing followed the week: doctors, nurses, assistant nurses, as well as in diverse shifts. Also different type of observation techniques, such as on-site observing. This kind of observation procedure, which requires to stay a long time at the same spot, observes the environment and workflow of the staff, without following an specific professional.

Peter also shadowed through the weekend, bringing to our common knowledge a lot of insights about the tasks and procedures during this period of time, and how a change in the staff present at the ward can change things.

Julien was lucky enough to witness (part of) a fecal microbiota transplant, a procedure in which fecal matter is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline solution, and placed in a patient. The purpose of this procedure is to replace good bacteria that has been killed or suppressed, usually by the use of antibiotics, causing bad bacteria, (specifically Clostridium) to over-populate the colon.

EXCLUSIVE Equipment used in part of the fecal material/saline solution mixing process. Not suitable for the smoothie lover.

We also allocated a lot of time to work in our need formulations from the observations at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, which are now over 800. It is critical to take time to, not only formulate these needs and quickly validate them, but for also have conversations and discuss them among the team.

With these formulated needs, which we share with our mentors in our weekly lunch meetings, we are getting ready for our next Reference Group Meeting, in which we will decide which needs can be pursued for solving by a student thesis. We are also preparing for our first Business Mentor Meeting, where we will determine the business potential of some of the needs we deem as commercializable.

(You can always reach us by sending an e-mail to: teaminfection@clinicalinnovation.se)

José (Team Infection)

Third week of in-field clinical observations for Team Infection, with a week full of expected and unexpected meetings, different shifts and mingles!

We started the week with our first psychology group session with Gustav, talking about conflict resolution and common purpose. As our history as a team is short, but our future seems to be long and prosper, it is important that we have the best tools and resources to tackle all the obstacles we might find.

You will find Gustav at habitud.se

As we have a lot of observations from the past two weeks, we needed to make some team quality time to sit and work together, formulating possible needs that these observations may discover.

Peter & Christoffer, as well as shadowing the Infectious Diseases’ staff at their regular work, have been at the SLL Innovationsfondens day at Monday, as well as at Inspirationsmingel på Innovationsplatsen at Friday.

Christoffer and Peter at SLL Innovationsfondens dag

Julien & José on the other hand have tried new approaches to the staff shadowing, following nurses and assistant nurses in evening (13.00 to 21.00) and night (21.00 to 07.00) shifts.

5:30 A.M. mandatory selfie at Ward 4, Infectious Diseases Department

Last but not least, after almost a month at the hospital, Team Infection also decided to host a breakfast for the staff, a tradition that rotates at this clinic every week.

(You can always reach us by sending an e-mail to: teaminfection@clinicalinnovation.se)

José (Team Infection)

Second week of clinical observations for Team Infection at the Infectious Diseases Department at Danderyds Sjukhus… and we are just as excited as the first week (if not more!).

This week we have all switched from our last week’s shadowing roles. Peter and Christoffer followed senior and junior doctors, as well as consulting doctor services (in places such as the Emergency Department and Orthopedics).

Meanwhile, Julien and José followed nurses and assistant nurses, as the other two team members did last week. We expect that this switching methodology, even though it can bring a larger number of duplicate observations, will also give each team member the opportunity to, at least, glance the work development of the all the professionals involved.

It is also very important to have different team members witness similar scenarios, as each professional and personal background will give as result different type of observations.

As we advanced last week in our quick post, we had our first Reference Group Meeting: a first encounter with the group of healthcare professionals that will evaluate needs that we have specially selected. These needs, after a long process of formulation, filtering and development, will transform into Master Thesis proposals for students to cover, generating a positive outcome to the healthcare system as well.

At the Reference Group Meeting

The Reference Group is composed by people of different professional profiles, such as human resources, administration, assistant nurses, nurses and doctors. As we wanted to present our ideas as best as possible, we tried to make the meeting as interactive (and entertaining) as we could, as their opinion and time is very valuable to us.

(You can always reach us by sending an e-mail to: teaminfection@clinicalinnovation.se)

José (Team Infection)

Late night work at Hus 50 getting ready for our 1st Reference Group Meeting! Stay tuned next week for more information!

Late night work at Hus 50!

The first week of in-field clinical observations is over for Team Infection. After one week of being part of the day to day work at the Infectious Diseases clinic at Danderyds Sjukhus, we are closer to identifying the needs that the clinic has.

But this has not been without struggle, as it seems that our dive into the clinic got some of our team members sick. But, taking advantage of difficulty, we were able to observe the clinical pathway… from a patients’ point of view.

We also followed senior & junior doctors in their daily work development. From the inpatient to the outpatient wards, we have been learning how they integrate into the healthcare system, their procedures and techniques, and the relation with the patients. Doctors that work as consulting support for other wards and departments have also been followed.

We have also shadowed nurses and assistant nurses, witnessing the broad amount of care they deliver, as well as the extensive number of tasks they carry out.

We want to thank all these professionals for their time and effort.

Team Infection evaluating observations to formulate needs

All these observations will make us able to identify the needs that the department, and their members, have in the development of the daily work and care.

(You can always reach us by sending an e-mail to: teaminfection@clinicalinnovation.se)

José (Team Infection)

After the Clinical Introduction at the Infectious Diseases Department at Danderyds Hospital, the CIF team working at the clinic is ready to start observing all the activities that the department develops in its daily work…

But wait… what is CIF?

CIF, standing for Clinical Innovation Fellowships is a multidisciplinary EIT (European Innovation Technology) Health Innovation Fellowship supported by KI (Karolinska Institutet), KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan) and the Stockholm County Council (Stockholm Läns Landsting). If you haven’t lost yourself with all this acronyms, there will be some more, further on.

The team that addresses you in this post is stationed at the Infectious Diseases Department at Danderyds Hospital. This team is composed by Peter Kelly (Medical Doctor), Julien Mauroy (Industrial Designer), Christoffer Haas (Business) and José Díaz (Engineer).

(Seen from left: Christoffer Haas (Business), Julien Mauroy (Industrial Designer), José Díaz (Engineer) and Peter Kelly (Medical Doctor)).

At the time you read this blog post, we have already completed a three weeks introduction program. The introduction started at CTMH (Center for Technology in Medicine and Health) headquarters at Flemingsberg.

This first week was followed by an incredible off-site kick-off (friendly named “Boot camp”). All of this accompanied by an immense quantity of arrangements that make this Fellowship possible (everything from intranet logins, to tools for team cohesion, going through observational exercises on-site and learning from the experiences of former participants).

And now, after the third week, the Clinical Introduction is for sure over. We have had a busy week packed with invaluable meetings with key resources at the Danderyds Hospital. We have been introduced to the hospital’s CEO, human resources, managers, doctors, nurses, assistant nurses, IT managers, the head of the clinic and many more, to whom we all have to extend our thanks for their welcome.

We have spent most of our time at the departments that, directly or indirectly, work with Infectious Diseases. From the Infectious Diseases’ wards 3 and 4, through Dermatology, Orthopedics and the Emergency Department.

And now introduced to all the levels of labor that make the clinical machinery work, it is our time now is time to follow its clockworkers, the women and men that make this clinical environment possible, steady and efficiently.

From our office at Hus 50, 4th floor, we thank again everyone that is making this possible, and we are excited to post next week again, after our first week observing activities on-site at the clinic.

(You can always reach us by sending an e-mail to: teaminfection@clinicalinnovation.se)

José (Team Infection)