Grants from the Bergþóra Magnúsdóttir and Jakob Júlíus Bjarnason Memorial Fund for quality projects and scientific research in healthcare

-Automatic translation

The Bergþóra and Jakobs Memorial Fund operates under the auspices of the Directorate of Health and operates according to a confirmed charter. In 1932, the couple Bergþóra Magnúsdóttir and Jakob Júlíus Bjarnason made a will that after their deaths, a fund would be established where all their possessions would become the foundation capital of the fund. The Bergþóra and Jakobs Memorial Fund is a non-profit organisation/fund that operates according to a confirmed charter. Previously, the Directorate of Health's funds no 297, 386, 701 and 1372 had been entered into the Memorial Fund, and its charter was updated. The board of the fund consists of Alma D. Möller, the Medical Director of Health, Sigurður Helgi Helgason, the director of Iceland Health, and Þórarinn Guðjónsson, President of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland. The purpose of the Fund is to support quality and scientific work in Icelandic healthcare. Quality in healthcare means that healthcare is safe, timely, effective, based on non-discrimination, user-centred and effective. Grants from the Fund may be granted to well-defined quality projects or scientific research that the Scientific Ethics Committee has authorised. When granting money from the fund to quality projects, projects that increase patient safety are prioritised, and when granting money to scientific research, cancer research shall be prioritised.

Ten applications were submitted in June. This year, four quality and three scientific research projects were awarded grants totalling ISK 15,049,500. The grants were awarded at the end of a World Patient Safety Day seminar on September 17.

Grant recipients, projects and amounts

• Heilbrigðisstofnun Vesturlands, Garðar Jónasson quality manager
  Icelandic translation of the standard ISO 7101: 2023 Quality management in healthcare.
  ISK 2,750,000.

• Reykjalundur, Árdís Björk Ármannsdóttir, specialist physician
  Implementation of CARF at Reykjalundur.
  ISK 2,000,000.

• Landspítali, Nutrition Center, Áróra Rós Ingadóttir, head of the department
  Assessment of success of nutritional therapy in Landspítali and after discharge from Landspítali.
  ISK 2,000,000.

• The Primary Health Care, Margrét Ólafía Tómasdóttir, Chief Medical Officer, Arndís Stefánsdóttir, specialist physician and Erla Þórisdóttir
  A time management tool for GPs to increase overview, performance and job satisfaction.
  ISK 800.000.

• Professor Sigurdís Haraldsdóttir
  Collaborative project on early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
  ISK 3,000,000.

• Ólöf Kristjana Bjarnadóttir PhD student
  Adherence to antihormonal treatment in hormone-positive breast cancer in Iceland 2004-2023, prognostic factors and impact on prognosis.
  ISK 2,732, 000.

• Arnar Snær Ágústsson PhD student
  Is there an increased risk of cancer in individuals who are genotyping for Lynch syndrome and take medicines that affect the immune system?
  ISK 1.767.500.