About me
I was born in Lund. My main interest outside of school was dancing. I stayed in Lund for medical school. During my last year at medical school a meet my future husband and we decided to move to Kalmar for our internship. After almost two years of internship, we moved to Stockholm for our specialist training. I have since worked at the clinic of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Södersjukhuset. We have three wonderful kids aged 9, 7 and 3 years.
Research description
My field of research is mainly sepsis and coagulopathy. When I registered as a PhD-student the plan was to write my thesis on sepsis, with the aim to improve identification. When the COVID-19 pandemic came it was not possible to proceed with the planned studies and COVID-19 became my research priority. At my hospital, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, we treated the largest number of patients with critical COVID-19 in Sweden. The main focus for my research is the risk for thromboembolism in patients requiring ICU care.
The findings of the studies included in my thesis are as follows: Patients early in the pandemic had an association with a better outcome if treated with intensified thromboprophylaxis compared to standard low dosage. If this was an effect of the anticoagulation, the anti-inflammatory characteristics of low-molecular-weight heparin, a consequence of other unknown temporal changes in the treatment of critical COVID-19 during the first wave, or random variation, we will never know. Even if glucocorticoids may attenuate immunothrombosis in patients with critical COVID-19, no additive effect was shown by increasing the dose from 6 to 12 mg dexamethasone. If this means glucocorticoids do not mitigate immunothrombosis, or if 6 mg is enough to reach a ceiling effect, we will also never know as it is not possible to compare glucocorticoids to a placebo, with glucocorticoids already being an established mortality-lowering treatment. However, we can conclude, when prescribing drugs to a patient with critical COVID-19 and risk for thromboembolism and/or bleeding, choosing a high or a low dose of glucocorticoids is unlikely to considerably increase or decrease the risk further. Low peak values and high trough values of the blood test anti-Factor Xa are associated with the clinical outcomes of thromboembolism and bleeding in patients with critical COVID-19. These promising results must be investigated further, also in other critically ill populations. Since thromboprophylaxis is one of the most prescribed treatments for the critically ill, an improvement in dosing would have a large effect on reducing the number of thromboembolism and bleeding in ICUs worldwide.
In addition to my COVID-19-studies I have continued with sepsis research. We have produced an algorithm to identify septic patients using the electronic health records. With this algorithm we are now investigating the true incidence of sepsis, type of infections causing sepsis, and which patients that have the highest risk of morbidity and mortality of sepsis.
My main priority now after defending my thesis is to continue to develop my skills as a researcher. I therefore wish to broaden my experience by working at a new institution. I hope that my skill set may be of help also to other researchers. I am open to all fields in intensive care and looking very much forward to see and learn new ways to do research with new research colleges.
Teaching portfolio
Main teacher for internship doctors in Anaesthesia and Intensive care, 2018
Main teacher for fourth years medical students in Anesthesia and Intensive care, 2019–2020
Repeated lecturer for nurses in specialist training
Repeated lectures for doctors of other specialities on drugs used for pain and sedation
Education
Primary school, Lerbäckskolan, Lund, Sweden, 1989–1998
Natural Science, Polhemskolan, Lund, Sweden, 1998–2001
Mathematics, Chemistry and Biotech, Faculty of Engineering, 2002
Medical doctor, University of Lund, Sweden, 2003-2009
Ph D studies, November 2018 - May 2023 at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, “Treatment of coagulopathy in patients with critical COVID-19”. Supervised by Maria Cronhjort, Johan Mårtensson, Eva Joelsson-Alm and Martin Dahlberg
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Awarded for best teacher 2013 by medical students