Sophia Zackrisson is Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at Lund University and Senior Consultant at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, with her research activities based at the Department of Translational Medicine (ITM). Her research focuses on imaging diagnostics in cancer, primarily breast cancer but also other tumour diseases. The research spans screening and early detection, risk assessment and personalised diagnostics, often using large data sets and advanced image analysis.
“Imaging diagnostics is no longer just about seeing images, but about combining images, data and clinical knowledge to make better decisions for each individual,” she says.
The work is broad yet coherent, encompassing clinical studies, epidemiology, technological development and AI based methods, as well as patient information and health economic perspectives. Several projects are conducted in parallel through close collaboration between different professional groups, departments and clinical units.
Research environments in Malmö
A decisive factor for the research is the environment at the Faculty of Medicine in Malmö. The proximity between the university, hospital and research infrastructure creates opportunities for collaboration that are difficult to achieve elsewhere.
Sophia Zackrisson emphasises that CRC (Clinical Research Centre) functions as a central meeting place where researchers, clinicians and technical specialists meet informally. The geographical proximity contributes to short decision making pathways and a way of working in which ideas can quickly be tested in collaboration with healthcare.
Working clinically close at the Faculty of Medicine in Malmö is straightforward, notes Sophia Zackrisson. There is strong expertise in cancer diagnostics, large registers and population based cohorts, as well as day to day collaboration across both academic and clinical boundaries.
“It is easy to get in touch, test ideas and build further together. Much comes down to interpersonal relationships and trust.”
At the same time, there are challenges in collaboration between two principal organisations, where administrative structures can sometimes slow development. This makes the local support from the Malmö departmental office and administrative support particularly important in practice.
As part of strengthening breast cancer research and clinically integrated care in Malmö, a physical centre for breast cancer care is planned on the hospital campus, made possible through a donation from the Julia and Hans Rausing Foundation.
Precision medicine in practice
For just over a year, Sophia Zackrisson has served as Deputy Director of Precision Medicine Centre South (PMC Syd), a joint initiative between Lund University and Region Skåne, with Olle Melander as Director. Through close collaboration between academia and healthcare, the centre aims to ensure that precision medicine gains real traction in clinical practice. The background is that scientific evidence often already exists, but strategies and organisational structures are lacking to enable new approaches to function within everyday healthcare.
“The technology and the data are there. Today, the challenges more often concern organisation, logistics and how to make precision medicine a natural part of routine clinical care.”
Although precision medicine is often associated with cancer treatment, the work in Malmö also includes prevention and major public health diseases, in line with strong research environments in population based and clinically integrated research.
Patient benefit and equity
In the long term, precision medicine has the potential to deliver both improved health outcomes and more efficient use of resources — by ensuring that the right patient receives the right intervention at the right time.
“One size fits all doesn’t work. But equitable healthcare does not mean identical care — it means that everyone has access to accurate methods based on their needs.”
An important part of the research also concerns how patients receive information and participate in decisions related to screening and diagnostics — something that varies between individuals and over time.
An example of the Faculty’s strengths in Malmö
In summary, the work within imaging diagnostics and precision medicine illustrates how the Faculty of Medicine’s activities in Malmö function as an integrated research and healthcare environment. Clinical proximity, large data resources, technical expertise and collaboration together create conditions for research with clear societal relevance.
“I often see myself more as an enabler than a producer. What matters most is making things happen in practice – because when people dare to try new approaches and collaborate across boundaries, things start to move,” says Sophia Zackrisson.
