Gunnar Hartvigsen


Professor

Job description

Gunnar Hartvigsen, PhD, is professor at the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Computer Science, and Head of the Health Informatics and -Technology group (HIT) (former: Medical Infor­matics & Telemedicine group (MI&T)). Hartvigsen is also professor 2/Forsker 1 (Senior researcher) at The Helgeland Hospital Trust/Helgelandssykehuset HF (from 2023). In 2018-2022, he was professor at Department of Health and Nursing Science, Faculty of Health- and Sport Science, University of Agder (UiA) (part time) and affiliated with the Centre for e-health, UiA. Dr. Hartvigsen was in 2016–2017 professor at the Norwegian Centre for eHealth Research, University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) (part time). In 2000-2015 he was professor at the Nor­weg­ian Centre for Integrated Care and Tele­medi­cine (NST), University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) (part time). He holds an MSc and a PhD degree in Com­puter Science (Artificial Intelligence) from UiT. Prior to joining the Department of Computer Science at UiT, he was a research fellow at the Bodø Graduate School of Business, Nor­way (1987-89). From 1989, he has held different positions at UiT: assistant professor (1989-1991), associate professor (1991-1994) and professor (1994-).
In 2005-2009 he was Vice Dean for research and education at the Faculty of Science, UiT. He has held several honorary posts at the Department of Computer Science, including Head of Department, Vice Head of Department, and Head of Education. He has been member of several boards and committees at the university, including deputy member of the board at UiT. In 2004–2006, he was chairman of the Norwegian Council for Computer Science. From 2010–2017, he was member of The National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT). From 2005-2013, he served as board member of the Norwegian Society for Medical Informatics (FDH and later NorHIT).In 2007-2015, he was director and research manager of Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory (TTL), one of Norway’s first centres for research-based innovation (SFI). In the period 2024-2025 he is a member of the Norwegian Committee on Skill Needs (“Kompetansebehovsutvalget”).
He has supervised 90 master’s students (theses) and 16 PhD students. Dr. Hartvigsen is currently supervising/co-supervising 6 PhD students and 1 master’s student. Furthermore, he has supervised 7 postdocs (at UNN). Since 1992, he has been a member of more than 100 adjudication committees for faculty positions (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and USA). He has acted as referee for several conferences, journals, and research councils.
Dr. Hartvigsen has been a member of several doctoral adjudication committees in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. He has participated in several international expert panels for evaluation of large applications with budgets of up to € 50 million in Sweden (VINNOVA) and Finland (Academy of Finland and TEKES). In 2020, Hartvigsen was a member of international evaluation panels for Horizon 2020 (Innovative Medicines Initiative) and Health Science.
In recent years, Dr. Hartvigsen has been teaching courses on Telemedicine and eHealth Systems (MSc, PhD), Medical Informatics (MSc, PhD), Electronic Health Records (MSc), Software engineering (BSc), and How to do research / communicating research (PhD). In addition, he has been teaching/organising several special curriculum courses for PhD students. Hartvigsen has extensive experience from study administration from several universities, including planning and management of study programs and courses.
In 2021, Hartvigsen was awarded NOK 6.3 million from DIKU (the Directorate for Internationalization and Quality Development in Higher Education) to establish an experience-based master's in digital health services together with the health service in the Helgeland region.
Dr. Hartvigsen has received several grants from the Research Council of Norway (Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory NOK 240 Mill. 2007-2014 (NOK 80 Mill. from RCN + NOK 160 Mill. from the partners); Context-sensitive systems for mobile communication in hospitals NOK 4,4 Mill. 2007-2010; DiPato - Distributed Electronic Patient Record NOK 1,5 Mill. 2000-2004; Global Distributed Diary NOK 3,3 Mill. 1996-2001), Helse Nord (Smartphones in Type-2 Diabetes Group Education Programs, NOK 2,8 mill. 2014-2017; Moving pre-surgical planning from the hospital to the patient at home through electronic collaboration (eTeam-Surgery) NOK 8,1 mill. 2013-2016; Impact of Experience Sharing on Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management, NOK 2,5 mill. 2011-2013; Self-help through a mobile ICT tool, NOK 2 mill. 2005-2008), Tromsø forskningsstiftelse (Mobile phone-based health information for people with diabetes, NOK 1,2 mill., 2011-2014), Regional Research Fund North-Norway (CADMOS – serious games for children with diabetes, NOK 3 mill, 2014-2016). Horizon 2020 (WARIFA 2021-2024, EURO 710.000). At UNN, Hartvigsen has contributed to several EU projects, including Renewing Health 2010–2013, FI-STAR 2013–2015 and HEIR 2020-2023. (1 € ≈ 10 NOK)
His research interests include various aspects of telemedicine and medical informatics, including electronic disease surveillance, self-help systems for people with chronic diseases, social media and mixed reality social computer games for people with chronic diseases, medical sensor systems, HCI for mobile systems, digital patient communication, context-sensitive communication, physical activity sensors, m-health applications for people with intellectual disability, telemedicine systems in private homes, and motivational mechanisms in e-health.
In 1994-95, he was on sabbatical leave at the University of Twente, Faculty of Computer Science, The Netherlands. In Fall 2006, he was on sabbatical leave at the Faculty of Medicine, Munich University of Technology and Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University. In 2011-2012 he was visiting professor at the University of California Davis (September-December 2011 & April-July 2012). In 2017-2018 he was visiting professor at the Technical University of Valencia (UPV), Spain, in 2021-2022 visiting professor at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and in June 2022 visiting professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.
Hartvigsen has an extensive scientific production. Dr. Hartvigsen has written three books (“The Researcher’s Handbook”, “Computer Ethics” and “Lessons learned from 25 years with telemedicine in Northern Norway” (English and Russian edition)) and more than 400 papers and reports on telemedicine, electronic disease surveillance, EHRs, self-help systems for people with chronic diseases, intelligent homes, dis­tributed applications, software agents, adaptive user interfaces, file systems, educa­tional software, knowledge-based systems and ethics. He has recorded more than 900 contributions in the Norwegian publication database Cristin.
Hartvigsen has established extensive cooperation with several outstanding international research groups in medical informatics. As a result, he has published scientific papers together with more than 150 researchers from several countries, including researchers at University of Washington, Seattle, USA; Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA; University of California, Davis, USA; University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, USA; Columbia University, New York, USA; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA; Technische Universität München, Germany; Technical University of Valencia, Spain; University of Geneva, Switzerland; Aalborg University, Denmark; and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
Hartvigsen has been a member of Academia Borealis, Northern Norway Academy of Science since the Academy was founded in 2001. In 2016, he was elected as a member of NTVA, Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences.
In 2014, he was awarded Forskerforbundet’s (Norwegian Association of Researchers) “hjernekraft pris” (Brainpower award) for his contribution within self-help systems for the treatment of people with diabetes.
Hartvigsen is presented in “Biographical Lexicon of Medical Informatics” (2015) and listed in “Who's Who in Ethics” (Global Ethics Observatory, unesco.org).
He has been invited as a speaker on telemedicine and eHealth in several countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greenland, Germany, France, UK, Spain, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, USA and Australia.
His h-index = 33 according to Google Scholar, i10-index = 85 and his publications have received over 5900 citations, of which more than 3000 since 2019.


  • Sarala Ghimire Subedi, Santiago Martinez, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Martin Gerdes :
    Virtual prenatal care: A systematic review of pregnant women's and healthcare professionals' experiences, needs, and preferences for quality care
    International Journal of Medical Informatics 2023 DOI
  • Erlend Johannessen, Jonas Johansson, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Alexander Horsch, Eirik Årsand, André Henriksen :
    Collecting health-related research data using consumer-based wireless smart scales
    International Journal of Medical Informatics 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Henriette Michalsen, André Henriksen, Gunn Pettersen, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Silje C. Wangberg, Gyrd Thrane et al.:
    Using mobile health to encourage physical activity in individuals with intellectual disability: a pilot mixed methods feasibility study
    Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Sarala Ghimire Subedi, Santiago Martinez, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Martin Gerdes :
    Augmented Reality enhanced device usage training tool for in-home health-self-monitoring by pregnant women
    Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • André Henriksen, David-Zacharie Issom, Ashenafi Zebene Woldaregay, Gerit Pfuhl, Eirik Årsand, Keiichi Sato et al.:
    Dataset of motivational factors for using mobile health applications and systems
    Data in Brief 16. September 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen, André Henriksen, Jan Fuglesteg, Kristine Frammarsvik, Tina Rishaug, Eirik Årsand et al.:
    Åpne fagdager – en modell for gjensidig kontakt og kunnskapsutveksling med lokalsamfunnet
    2024
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Helgelandssykehuset lanserer forskerskolen HELGA
    30. January 2024 FULLTEKST
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Regjeringa utnemner sju nye medlemar til Kompetansebehovutvalet
    02. February 2024 FULLTEKST
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Kompetansebehovsutvalet 2024-2025 Skal undersøke korleis ny teknologi påverkar kompetan-sebehovet i framtida
    02. February 2024 FULLTEKST
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Kickoff for Helgelandssykehusets forskerskole
    30. January 2024 FULLTEKST
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Kunstig intelligens – hvordan angår det oss eldre?
    2024
  • Karianne Aho, Eirik Årsand, Tina Rishaug, Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    An mHealth tool designed to empower and enhance communication between healthcare providers and Sami patients with type 2 diabetes
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2024
  • Pietro Randine, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Eirik Årsand :
    Integrating Hybrid Closed Loop Data into Third-Party Systems: A FHIR-Based Technical Implementation and its Challenges
    2024
  • Karianne Aho, Eirik Årsand, Tina Rishaug, Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    An mHealth tool designed to empower and enhance communication between healthcare providers and Sami patients with type 2 diabetes
    2024
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    DiAchieve: Preliminary Results from a Study on End-Users' Preferences for a Novel E-Health Program for Type 2 Diabetes
    2024
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    DiAchieve: Preliminary Results from a Study on End-Users' Preferences for a Novel E-Health Program for Type 2 Diabetes
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2024
  • Pietro Randine, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Eirik Årsand :
    Integrating Hybrid Closed Loop Data into Third-Party Systems: A FHIR-Based Technical Implementation and its Challenges
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2024
  • Eirik Årsand, Neethan Puvanendran, Pietro Randine, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Miriam Kopperstad Wolff, André Henriksen :
    Mobile nutritional delivery system for people with insulin-treated diabetes
    2023
  • Pietro Randine, Louise Pape-Haugaard, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Eirik Årsand :
    Including patient-generated health data in electronic health records – a solution for CGM-data
    2023
  • Pietro Randine, Louise Pape-Haugaard, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Eirik Årsand :
    Including patient-generated health data in electronic health records – a solution for CGM-data
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Erlend Johannessen, André Henriksen, Eirik Årsand, Alexander Horsch, Jonas Johansson, Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Health Research Requires Efficient Platforms for Data Collection from Personal Devices
    Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    DiAchieve - A Qualitative Pre-Study
    2023
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    DiAchieve - A New e-Health Lifestyle Program for Improved Self-Management and Remission of Type 2 Diabetes
    2023
  • Erlend Jan Johannessen, André Henriksen, Eirik Årsand, Ludwig Alexander Horsch, Jonas Lars Johansson, Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Health Research Requires Efficient Platforms for Data Collection from Personal Devices
    2023
  • Eirik Årsand, Neethan Puvanendran, Pietro Randine, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Miriam Kopperstad Wolff, André Henriksen :
    Mobile nutritional delivery system for people with insulin-treated diabetes
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2023 DOI
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    Involving end users in the design and development of an e-health program for lifestyle changes in type 2 diabetes
    Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics 2023 DOI
  • Tina Rishaug, André Henriksen, Anne-Marie Aas, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Kåre Inge Birkeland, Eirik Årsand :
    Involving end users in the design and development of an e-health program for lifestyle changes in type 2 diabetes
    2023
  • Eirik Årsand, Neethan Puvanendran, Pietro Randine, Gunnar Hartvigsen, Miriam Kopperstad Wolff, André Henriksen :
    Staying in Control - Mobile Nutritional Delivery System for people with Type 1 Diabetes
    2023 OMTALE
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Nettverksbygging: Fra lokal forskningsgruppe til internasjonalt forskernettverk
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Nord-Norge var verdensledende innen bruk av telemedisinske tjenester. Hvorfor var vi det og hva kan vi gjøre for å komme i tetposisjon igjen?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Velferdsteknologi for hvem? Gode og mindre gode eksempler fra inn- og utland?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Publiseringstradisjoner under endring – angår det meg?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Hvordan helseovervåking i hjemmet, smarte sensorer, "små data" og "digitalt støv" kan redde livet ditt?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    How health monitoring, smart sensors, small data and digital dust can save your life
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Kunstig intelligens, digital helse og helseteknologi – etiske implikasjoner for medisinsk og helsefaglig forskning
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Ny teknologi, teknologi-optimisme og en digitale helse(r)evolusjon
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Er ikke Helseplattformen og Akson den løsningen alle ønsker seg med hensyn til regionalt og lokalt samarbeid? Hva ble lovet og hvordan har det gått?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    How home health monitoring, smart sensors, small data and digital dust can save your life
    2023
  • Khayam Ashraf Butt, Niels Thomassen, Peter Christensen, Esther C. J. Consten, T. Rautio, Vasile-Liviu Titu et al.:
    A Surgical Telementoring Curriculum for Robotic Ventral Mesh Rectopexy
    Colorectal Disease 2023 DOI
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Mentorordning på HSYK? Hvorfor skal jeg bruke en mentor for å utvikle meg som forsker?
    2023
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Technology for (self-)management of diabetes
    2023
  • Tina Lien Barken, Stefano Bonacina, Rune Bostad, Elia Gabarron, Beate Hennie Garcia, Kristine Haddeland et al.:
    University campus as a smart technology-supported active learning arena
    Septentrio Reports 2023 DOI
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Dosent eller professor? To ulike karrierestiger
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Having a career in academia: How to succeed in a Norwegian University
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Having a career in academia in Norway
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    How to become a professor or docent? Some advice towards your professor or docent position
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    From local research group to international network of researchers: How to establish international cooperation in research?
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Unik studium åpnet på Helgeland
    31. August 2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Motivational apps for people with intellectual disabilities: Progress on MOVE-IT PR2
    2022
  • Gunnar Hartvigsen :
    Technology for (self-management of) diabetes
    2022

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    Research interests

    My research interests include various aspects of telemedicine and medical informatics, including electronic disease surveillance, self-help systems for people with chronic diseases, social media and mixed reality social computer games for people with chronic diseases, medical sensor systems, HCI for mobile systems, digital patient communication, context-sensitive communication, physical activity sensors, e-health applications for people with intellectual disability, telemedicine systems in private homes, and motivational mechanisms in e-health.

    Teaching

    In recent years, I have been teaching courses on Telemedicine and eHealth Systems (MSc, PhD), Medical Informatics (MSc, PhD), Electronic Health Records (MSc), Software engineering (BSc), and How to do research / communicating research (PhD). In addition, I have been teaching/organising several special curriculum courses for PhD students.