Human First Vision

VIA University College, the Central Denmark Region and Aarhus University have accomplished substantial results in the attempt to improve conditions for patients and citizens as well as employees and students.

With Human First we have an ambition to work together on further strengthening research and education efforts in healthcare, at both the university college educations and the university educations. At the same time, we want ongoing attention on how research, education and practice interact and how they are mutually beneficial to each other.

Here we describe the vision and foundation of our cooperation. With this as our point of reference, we will continually choose focus areas which will contribute to realising the vision and which reflect significant development trends in society and in healthcare. The focus areas are to work as beachheads for the continuing cooperation and proceed in parallel to other new and existing initiatives.

It is crucial that we convert the ambitions into concrete actions that will yield visible results. These actions and their results are to benefit the 1.2m citizens in the region, and contribute to a healthier life for all people on earth. We cannot do this alone.

The Municipalities, general practitioners, private companies and other stakeholders are crucial collaborators, and we invite them all to cooperate broadly across the health care sector, for the benefit of the citizens.

We also want to send the message that Human First is an ambitious and desirable partner – even for the corporate world and international institutions.

Aase Lydiksen
Dean, VIA University College, VIA Health

Ole Thomsen
Head of Corporate Management, the Central Denmark Region

Lars Bo Nielsen
Dean, Health, Aarhus University

VIA University College, the Central Denmark Region and Aarhus University has a long tradition of working together on research, development and education in health care. Our common ambitions are so high that we can only meet them through close cooperation, and through working with the strongest scientific partners in the world.

The vision for Human First:
Cooperation on groundbreaking research and intelligent education – for better health and society.

The vision builds on this common foundation for cooperation:

Human First
When VIA University College, the Central Denmark Region and Aarhus University join forces in Human First, it is not just to optimise the regions health care services. It is neither just to coordinate research, education and treatment in the health care sector. It is with a dream of making central Denmark the healthiest place on earth. For the people who live here. And for the people who don’t.

The healthiest place on earth could be right in the middle of Denmark
We are three strong organisations who combined have great potential for making a difference. It is not only an opportunity. It is an obligation. An obligation to society and to the individual citizen, to work together to ensure the best health care services. We have a unique chance to make something great – and healthy. An example that will inspire others to connect research, education and implementation to improve the local citizens’ health care services and the global citizens’ basis for a
healthy life.

Society means to get together. To join together.
VIA University College, the Central Denmark Region and Aarhus University. The common denominator is not actually health. But people in society. We work for the common good. And we work together on a fundamental task. That people do not become patients – and that patient are treated as people. A task that we can only accomplish together – not just including the partners in Human First, but by also cooperating with others.

From faculty to fact. And vice versa
Healthcare research, education and treatment are actually different sides of the same coin. But the distance between education, research and treatment is often longer than the physical distance between professionals. Our cooperation is all about making the transfer from knowledge to patient much shorter. And from patient to knowledge.

It is about knowledge. Combined.
We are around 35,000 people working within Human First. Each and everyone with their respective competences. From DNA research to the slaughterhouse worker suffering from arthritis.But no single person knows as much as all of us together. And that is the foundation for our cooperation.

From interaction to collaboration
Human First consists of three large partner organisations. Meaningful decisions and effective organisation is crucial, but there can be great distance between decisions and the reality of day-today operations. We want to assure an easy and agile interaction between our organisations where structural barriers do not obstruct important decisions and professional initiative.

The strategy is simple: Human first.