AU and AUH has a new professor in biostatistics and epidemiology
Irene Petersen has been appointed professor at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital. Her research is primarily based on electronic health data and it can be of significance for clinical treatment in practice.
Does the use of medicine during pregnancy damage the foetus and its development and do younger people with serious mental disorders have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases? These biological correlations are among those being investigated by the newly appointed professor in biostatistics and epidemiology at AU and AUH, Irene Petersen.
"Our research is predominately based on anonymised electronic health data. This data is particularly well-suited to studying correlations that would otherwise be difficult to study in other ways," she says.
Her work can be highly important for treatment in clinical practice. A few years ago, Irene Petersen and her colleagues demonstrated that younger people with serious mental disorders had a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. This subsequently led to a change in the national guidelines in the UK for the treatment of persons with serious mental disorders.
Irene Petersen graduated from Aarhus University and is currently Reader in Epidemiology and Statistics at the Department of Primary Care and Population Health, University College London (UCL).
Further information
Irene Petersen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Clinical Epidemiology
Email: i.petersen@ucl.ac.uk