Health

Good health is essential for a good life for both humans and animals, and to understand the mechanisms of good health, research is needed. NR contributes to many research projects with its statistical expertise to promote better health.

Statistical applications and modelling in health 

A lot of data is collected in all areas of health from municipal services, specialist health services, health trusts and national bodies. NR is working to analyse and model this data to extract the important information. 

Our expertise covers the full range of statistical methods, from common regression models to complex Bayesian hierarchical modelling. In close collaboration with partners, mechanistic models based on physical, chemical or biological knowledge are often combined with computer-driven, stochastic models. A good research project will often include participants with different backgrounds, and we have extensive experience in collaborating with doctors, biologists, pharmacologists, veterinarians and others. A good interdisciplinary collaboration will provide good health benefits for society. Some examples are: 

Right now we are participating in the modelling of corona spread of infection together with the National Institute of Public Health, where the spread of infection models used is based on NR researcher Solveig Engebretsen’s PhD work. This work is absolutely fundamental for understanding where and how the spread of infection takes place in Norway. 

One of the projects we have worked on the longest is the collaboration with the Department of Pharmacology and Mathematics at the University of Oslo, where we are looking at drug use in connection with Parkinson’s disease. 

In general, NR has extensive experience in registry data research also in connection with, among other things, cancer drugs, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills, antipsychotic drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, anticoagulants and drugs for heartburn, stomach ulcers and ulcers in the esophagus (proton pump inhibitors). 

Biostatistics 

NR has worked with genomic data for many years in collaboration with health trusts and universities. Some examples are: 

NR participates in the core facility for bioinformatics at the University of Oslo, and offers statistical advice and analysis of genomic data. 

NR has extensive experience with analyses of, for example, micro-RNA, DNA methylation, RNA sequences, SNPs and mRNA expression data. NR also participates in the research project Id-Lung at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway, which uses multiomic data to identify biomarkers for metastatic lung cancer. 

Medical image analysis 

NR works with many different types of images in health; ultrasound, X-ray and MRI. For all types of images, NR works with detection, characterization and recognition of different types of objects and phenomena in the images. 

Digital inclusion in health 

Much of the dialogue with patients is digital. Then the computer systems must be designed so that as many patients as possible master the digital dialogue. NR has extensive experience in the area and works with issues from the primary health service to directorates. 

Medical sensors 

There is a significant increase in the use of medical sensors in many types of medical treatment and monitoring. NR has worked with a number of issues in this area including  privacy and secure transmission and data collection.