KI's activities in primary care

For Karolinska Institutet (KI), primary care is an important setting for education, doctoral education and research in collaboration with healthcare services. As a large proportion of the population’s healthcare contacts take place in primary care, it plays a central role in developing the healthcare of the future and in educating future healthcare professionals.

Primary care is often the first part of the healthcare system that most people encounter. It should be easy to access and provide care, preventive measures, rehabilitation and coordination based on the patient’s needs. Primary care manages common and long-term health problems and guides patients onwards when specialist care is needed.

KI helps develop primary care

KI works with healthcare providers and other organisations in primary care to create good conditions for education, research, doctoral education and service development. The collaboration aims to strengthen the quality of both education and patient-centred research, and to contribute to the evidence-based development of primary care. 

Joint initiatives with Region Stockholm

Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm are working together to strengthen research, education and innovation in primary care. The goal is to create long-term sustainable research and education environments and to strengthen collaboration between primary care, specialist care and hospital care. The research covers general practice and other areas of primary care, including collaboration with hospital-based specialist care, rehabilitation and nursing. 

Strengthening research in primary care

Since 2024, the KI–Region Stockholm management group has allocated dedicated funding to strengthen research in primary care. The initiative includes project funding, clinical research positions, support for doctoral students and development of research infrastructure. 

Collaboration between different parts of healthcare

An important focus area is strengthening collaboration between education and research environments in primary care and in hospitals. Several initiatives will contribute to research and education that follow patients’ journeys through healthcare, and create better conditions for knowledge development across organisational boundaries. One initiative concerns student-led care modules to increase collaboration between different healthcare services in education. Other measures have been initiated to promote greater collaboration between research environments in primary care and specialist care.

Examples of ongoing initiatives