Silvan Licher

I obtained my medical degree in 2016. In the same year, I started working as a PhD student under supervision of Prof.  Dr. M. Arfan Ikram and Prof. Dr. M. Kamran Ikram at the Department of Epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. During my PhD, I obtained a Master‘s degree in Clinical Epidemiology (cum laude). My research focuses on health care utilization in the general population, and the investigation of the co-occurrence and preventive potential of chronic diseases. Next to my research, I am active as a board member of the Dutch Epidemiology Society (VvE) and as guest editor at the Dutch Journal for General Practice.

In JoinUs4Health, I am responsible for work package 5 (Education), that adapts existing educational programmes to accessible formats for different levels of educational attainment. The goal of these programmes is to stimulate involvement of pupils, students and citizens in science. In parallel, we will host, research visits through summer schools, practical courses and secondments to practically engage citizens, pupils and students in science.

Most of all I am looking forward to the first (direct) interactions with study participants and citizens that are interested to contribute to scientific projects within one of the participating cohorts. The most interesting aspect in our project is for me to evaluate the value of adapted educational programmes to provide citizens with knowledge and tools such that they can actively engage in scientific projects. 

In co-creation with patients, I aim determined to develop individualized and population-level strategies to jointly prevent chronic diseases by targeting shared biological concepts and through optimization of common modifiable risk factors. The JoinUs4Health consortium provides a strong stimulus to exactly fulfil this ambition.