A Clinical Academic Group (CAG) is a collaborative partnership between clinicians, researchers, patients, and other relevant professional communities. Its purpose is to strengthen the link between clinical practice and research, ensuring that new knowledge can benefit patients more quickly.
Patient-tailored management of bacterial infections in the age of antibiotic resistance (CAG-PIA) envisions a future in which patient-tailored management of bacterial infections reduces the burden on patients and society.
We will achieve this by linking clinical practice with research to prevent, rapidly diagnose, and optimally treating bacterial infections.
Bacterial infections and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represent one of the greatest challenges to modern healthcare. Although AMR remains relatively uncommon in Norway, international travel and human mobility facilitate its rapid spread.
The burden is greatest among vulnerable patients, including infants, older adults, and people with comorbidities or immune suppression. Advances in cancer treatment and an increasing prevalence of conditions such as diabetes have expanded the population at risk of severe and difficult-to-treat infections. Pathogens may persist through biofilm formation, dormancy, and antibiotic tolerance, contributing to treatment failure and chronic disease. AMR also imposes substantial societal costs through prolonged hospital stays, isolation measures, increased healthcare expenditure, and absence from work
Previously, collaboration on infection prevention, diagnostics, and treatment were limited between the clinical environments at the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN)/Nordland Hospital (NLSH) and research groups at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT). CAG-PIA aims to expand and strengthen cross-institutional collaborations in infection management and AMR challenges.
This CAG has three research projects, each with clinically defined work-packages (WPs). The unifying Translational Research accelerator (TRA) will ensure integration of basic research across all three projects and facilitate innovation and clinical implementation in the health services.
The CAG will generate research ideas for grant applications, integrate findings into clinics to improve patient outcomes, incorporate concepts in educational courses for healthcare professionals, and broadly disseminate results to raise awareness of infection management and AMR across society.
CAG-PIA is financed for three years through the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (HN) and the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT. Additional funding has been obtained from other sources, including the Research Council of Norway (NFR). CAG-PIA will also seek further additional external funding to support its future activities and development.
