#EBW24 previews: State-of-the-art speakers for Stakeholders in the spotlight: “Be aware of biobanking”

We are pleased to confirm the state-of-the-art speakers for the panel session: ‘Stakeholders in the spotlight: “Be aware of biobanking” – outreach and communication in and for biobanks’. Emma Hvitfeldt and Christian Bruzelius from Biobank Sweden will be leading this session and we profile their abstract and biographies here. The session takes place on Thursday 16 May 2024 as part of the EBW24 programme.

Abstract: Communication – a tool for awareness and implementation of a new Biobank Act

In the beginning of 2023, a new Biobank Act came into force in Sweden. With less than six months to go before the actual implementation, Biobank Sweden (a national biobanking infrastructure) was assigned the challenging task of leading a national implementation project regarding the new legislation.

For this presentation, Emma Hvitfeldt and Christian Bruzelius from Biobank Sweden will showcase their journey of implementing a new Biobank Act in Sweden, which includes nationwide communication efforts towards healthcare, academia, and industry as well as biobanking professionals.

The presentation will highlight different examples of communication and outreach in the era of digitalisation, but also the importance of networking and collaboration to find joint solutions to common challenges in order to raise awareness of biobanking and implement change.

Emma Hvitfeldt

Emma Hvitfeldt is a communications officer with vast experience in national, regional, strategic, and operational communication within Life Science, focusing on research communication. She is currently employed at Biobank West, a regional unit for research support located at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. 

Since 2018, Emma has been working with communication for the national biobank infrastructure Biobank Sweden. She is one of the key persons in the national project “Implementation of Biobank Act (2023:38)”, led by Biobank Sweden to nationally implement a new Biobank Act in Sweden. 

Focusing on communication activities, her work within the national implementation project has included communication plans, advice to managers, film production, digital education, social media posts, and printed materials. These communication activities have been carried out in close collaboration with communication agencies, communications officers at the national Swedish website 1177.se, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, the National Board of Health and Welfare, the Swedish Ethical Review Authority, and the Medical Products Agency.

Recently, Emma Hvitfeldt was invited as a speaker to the national biobank conference of Biobank Norway to give a presentation on “Increased research on biobank samples – how communication contributes”.

Contributing to advances in clinical research, better and more individualised treatments, improved health, and a Life Science sector that can continue to be an area of strength for Sweden is something Emma is passionate about.

Christian Bruzelius

Christian Bruzelius is an experienced professional in the biobanking field, currently serving as a Project Manager at Uppsala Biobank and for Biobank Sweden where he leads a number of national initiatives, such as the implementation of the Biobank Act (2023:38) and optimising processes for improved sample accessibility and data sharing. With a background in IT service management, Christian brings technical expertise to his role. 

2023 – 2024	Biobank Act 2023:38, Project Management – Biobank SwedenImplementation of the Biobank Act (2023:38) for healthcare, academia and industry stakeholders.
2021 – 2024	Cohorts.se – Cycle 2, Project Management – Cohorts.seCohorts.se – The Swedish Cohort Consortium – is a national technical and collaborative infrastructure, enabling greater use of Swedish cohorts for worldleading research.
2020 – 2021	It’s Imperative to be Intuitive, Project Management – Biobank SwedenA strategic umbrella project initiated by Biobank Sweden in 2020. The purpose of the initiative was to improve Biobank Sweden’s processes and services for the benefit of biobank research, thus making it easier – i.e. more intuitive – for researchers to store and gain access to samples and sample data.
2019	Vision Driven Health, Project Management – Biobank SwedenThe project aimed to enable the combination and utilization, with patient consent, of biobank samples and associated biobank data, as well as health data, in an efficient and secure manner for academic and industrial research purposes.
2018	National IT Strategy, Project Management – Biobank SwedenLeading the processes for formulating and producing a national IT strategy for Biobank Sweden.