Research Stay at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne Australia

From the 1^st January to the 27^th April this year I was hosted by the Department of Statistics, Data Science and Epidemiology at Swinburne University of Technology for a research stay abroad.

My PhD project focuses on the clinical and socioeconomic outcomes of porphyria, a group of metabolic and mostly inherited disorders, such as risk for malignant disease, mortality and access to sickness benefits. While in Melbourne I worked with applied statisticians Dr. Jahar Bhowmik and Prof. Denny Meyer who both specialize in “big data” and advanced statistical methods. We were able to discuss novel solutions to my project, such as using stochastic processes to investigate the probability of going from sick leave to disability leave for persons with porphyria. I also attended a number of departmental meetings, in which I was able to present my own research and the state of registry based epidemiology in Norway and other Nordic countries. The department also ran a course in R programming, which I was invited to attend.

Melbourne is actually the city I grew up in, and the research stay abroad was a great opportunity for me to re-visit the city with my family and establish links with statisticians I hope to cooperate with in the future. Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience made possible by EPINOR.