Ole Petter Ottersen, president Karolinska Institutet 2017-2023

Last week I took part in Framtidsrådet’s Spring Mingle including two very inspirational lectures. Framtidsrådet strives to make Karolinska Institutet an attractive workplace for the students and employees of tomorrow, and contribute to a modern, dynamic and innovative Karolinska Institutet.

Ethical issues

Framtidsrådet had chosen to entitle this springs mingle “Ethics & the Future 2017” and in that supporting our ambition to make sure that ethical issues are constantly at the top of the agenda at Karolinska Institutet. In my introductory remarks, I stated that ethics is about trust and about KI’s image. Framtidsrådet’s mission is to make KI an attractive place to work. Questions about fundamental values and ethics is of course a big part of that. It should be so for all universities, but it is especially true for a medical university. We have learnt from our mistakes and taken actions. We have taken decisions and made changes with the aim to secure that we will not repeat past mistakes. We will emerge stronger with improved prospects for tackling future challenges. And by working together we can and will achieve that goal.

Amina Manzoor, Dagens Nyheter

The journalists’ perspective
The seminar was very professionally managed by Anneliese Lilienthal. One of the speakers was Amina Manzoor, medical journalist, Dagens Nyheter who talked about “Ethics & trustworthiness when communicating medical research to the public”. She contributed with very interesting perspectives on how journalists usually have very limited time to read up on a topic before delivering a news article. Here we as scientists can assist by providing comprehensive summaries. She also discussed news headings and how they are used to catch attraction. Something I myself have personal experience from in the last year when our university has been heavily exposed in the news media.