The visit started with an introduction meeting to the School of Health Sciences. Much of their programs of work align with Prof. Skinners, focusing on person-centred care, assessment and patient provider interactions. He was able to share his experiences from working in remote health care research in Australia.

He gave a lecture on the value of small studies, that can be in done in remote contexts, and how these can inform and lead to larger impact studies. 

Afterwards he met with Professor Eydís Sveinbjarnardóttir, Dean of School of Health Sciences. Eydis has a strong interest in the high rates of suicide in remote and Indigenous communities.

When meeting with Rúnar Gunnarsson, Project Manager of International Relations. The very positive outcomes and evaluations they have for students visiting the university was discussed.

The challenges of delivering a program with such a small staff team, and the fact that they can only support an undergraduate programs at the moment, was the main topic of discussion, when meeting with Associate Professor Díanna Gunnarsdóttir in Psychology.

The school of Health Sciences is now approved to award PhDs. Meeting with Prof Sigurdardottir and potential PhD Student was part of the visit, the school of Health Sciences is seeking to recruit students to commence their studies. Later Prof. Skinner met with Prof. Sigurdardottir and Associate Professor Harpa Arnardóttir. The first part of this meeting was focused on reviewing a Masters thesis Árún and Harpa had recently finished supervising. This was a pilot randomised trial of the use of a lifestyle app for people with type 2 diabetes. The second part of the meeting focused on the teaching one of the units in the Masters of Health Sciences. The unit is focused on living with Chronic Disease.

At the Akureyri Hospital Prof. Skinner provided a lecture. The lecture was broadcast to all health service centres in the region. The lecture was well received, stimulated lots of discussion and follow-up questions.

Prof. Skinner also offered his assistance on a number of different projects, in terms of providing analytical approaches, analysis of data and hosting workshops for Master students, when he returns to Akureyri in the spring, 2019.

For a full account of the stay click here.