The Vascular Medicine Outcomes (VAMOS) research program will welcome Susanne S. Pedersen, PhD, in January 2022 as their first visiting professor.
Pedersen, a professor of cardiac psychology at the University of Southern Denmark and head of the Department of Psychology, currently serves as a visiting professor at the University of York in the U.K. Pedersen’s research focuses on the role of the patient’s psychological profile on health outcomes, patient information provision, and treatment using a multi-disciplinary approach, including ehealth and ICT solutions.
Pedersen has coauthored multiple studies with Kim Smolderen, PhD, MSc, and Matthew Burg, PhD, that focus on the psychosocial consequences of heart disease, notably MIDAS and ACQUIRE-ICD. She has authored or coauthored over 250 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals and received several prestigious research grants from the European Union, Lundbeck Foundation, TrygFonden, the Danish Heart Foundation, the Dutch Heart Foundation, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
She recently presented her work on anxiety and depression in first-time implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) patients, at the European Heart Rhythm Association Congress. Pedersen will discuss her findings at the next Vascular Medicine Outcomes Research Meeting on Tuesday, May 4 at 7:00 a.m. EST. The lecture “Troubled Hearts, Troubled Minds: Is there a connection?” will include current evidence on the link between the heart and mind, treatment options, and potential barriers for implementation.