US-Nordic Roundtable on Health Registries and Biobanks

Sigurdur Ingi Jóhannsson, Icelandic Minister for Nordic Cooperation, addressed participants in US-Nordic Roundtable on Health Registries and Biobanks, held today in House of Sweden in Washington DC.

“In the Nordic countries we are very lucky in that we have excellent population data, with census going back as far as the 1700s, with detailed records of births, marriages and deaths,” says Sigurdur Ingi.

To have such far reaching data on the history of the Nordic people, their family connections and lifespans, is an incredible treasure trove. To couple it with social registers, the Nordic health data and biobanks, transforms that treasure into a valuable resource. The Nordics see possibilities for increased transatlantic cooperation, joint research and innovation initiatives that can be generated through the use of Nordic health registers, in medicine and beyond.

The US-Nordic Roundtable on Health Registries and Biobanks was organized by the Nordic Embassies in Washington DC in cooperation with Nordforsk with participants from all the Nordic countries and US counterparts. The Roundtable is organized as a side event to the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington on 15-17 February 2019 and aims to strengthen transatlantic research cooperation on precision medicine, including the use of Nordic health registries as catalysts for knowledge generation and innovation.