Welcome to VAC4EU Academy

Rosa Gini

Rosa is the Head of the Pharmacoepidemiology Unit at ARS Toscana and is currently the Vice President of VAC4EU.

In the VAC4EU Academy she has authored the following courses:

• CDM and ETL
• VAC4EU Catalogue

Her scientific interests center on infrastructures for generating valid Real World Evidence from diverse data sources, with a focus on transparency, scientific independence, and reproducibility. She brings this expertise into her courses, drawing in particular from the following seminal papers:

Gini R, Pajouheshnia R, Gutierrez L, Swertz MA, Hyde E, Sturkenboom M, et al. Metadata for Data dIscoverability aNd Study rEplicability in obseRVAtional Studies (MINERVA): Lessons Learnt From the MINERVA Project in Europe. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. 2024;33(8):e5884.

Gini R, Pajouheshnia R, Gardarsdottir H, Bennett D, Li L, Gulea C, et al. Describing diversity of real world data sources in pharmacoepidemiologic studies: The DIVERSE scoping review. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. 2024;33(5):e5787.

Swertz M, Enckevort E van, Oliveira JL, Fortier I, Bergeron J, Thurin NH, et al. Towards an Interoperable Ecosystem of Research Cohort and Real-world Data Catalogues Enabling Multi-center Studies. Yearb Med Inform. 2022 Aug;31(1):262–72.

Thurin NH, Pajouheshnia R, Roberto G, Dodd C, Hyeraci G, Bartolini C, et al. From Inception to ConcePTION: Genesis of a Network to Support Better Monitoring and Communication of Medication Safety During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2022 Jan;111(1):321–31.

Gini R, Dodd CN, Bollaerts K, Bartolini C, Roberto G, Huerta-Alvarez C, et al. Quantifying outcome misclassification in multi-database studies: The case study of pertussis in the ADVANCE project. Vaccine. 2020 Dec 22;38 Suppl 2:B56–64.

Gini R, Sturkenboom MCJ, Sultana J, Cave A, Landi A, Pacurariu A, et al. Different Strategies to Execute Multi-Database Studies for Medicines Surveillance in Real-World Setting: A Reflection on the European Model. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2020;108(2):228–35.

Gini R, Schuemie M, Brown J, Ryan P, Vacchi E, Coppola M, et al. Data Extraction And Management In Networks Of Observational Health Care Databases For Scientific Research: A Comparison Among EU-ADR, OMOP, Mini-Sentinel And MATRICE Strategies. eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes). 2016 Feb 8;4(1). Available from: http://repository.edm-forum.org/egems/vol4/iss1/2

Giulia Hyeraci

Giulia is a pharmacist by training and is currently attending the Postgraduate School of Hospital Pharmacy in Florence. She also holds a Master’s degree in Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance from the University of Bordeaux and works as a pharmacoepidemiology consultant at ARS Toscana.

In the VAC4EU Academy, she has co-authored the following course:

• VAC4EU Catalogue

Through her work at ARS Toscana, where she has contributed to various national and international multicenter projects, Giulia has gained extensive experience with the diversity of European data sources. This experience led to her involvement in populating the VAC4EU Catalogue, allowing her to develop a deep understanding of its functionalities — expertise she later brought to the development of the corresponding training course.

Nicolas Thurin

Nicolas Thurin, PharmD, PhD, is a pharmacist who specialises in pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology. He is currently a consultant for the BPE platform at the University of Bordeaux.

In the VAC4EU Academy he has co-authored the following course:

• CDM & ETL

Nicolas has over 10 years' experience working on the design and implementation of real-world projects in the French nationwide claims database, including drug utilisation studies, comparative effectiveness and safety research as well as validation studies. He has experience in data standardisation, common data models and distributed analytics. Nicolas is the principal investigator of several international federated projects.

Sima Mohammedi

Sima is working as a Codelist Coordinator in the VAC4EU Secretariat.

In the VAC4EU Academy, she has co-authored the following courses:

• VAC4EU CodeMapper Course
• Study Variables Verification and Validation

Sima has a background in medicine and worked as a general practitioner in both primary and secondary healthcare systems for over two years. She began her PhD at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), where she also started collaborating with VAC4EU as a Codelist Coordinator to support reviewing the codes for study variables.Her current work focuses on developing the infrastructure to enhance the functionality of the tool "CodeMapper", aiming to streamline and standardize the process of mapping codes for study variables across VAC4EU research projects.

Amirreza Dehghan Tarazjani

Amirreza is working as Case Validation Officer in the VAC4EU Secretariat

In the VAC4EU Academy he has authored the following courses:

• Study Variables Verification and Validation

Amirreza graduated in medicine in Iran in 2020 and worked as a General Practitioner in a hospital for three years before pursuing a PhD at UMC Utrecht. His research primarily focuses on cardiovascular adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines. Within VAC4EU, Amirreza serves as the coordinator and trainer for the Validation Task Force. Over the past year, the Task Force has developed customised questionnaires, case definitions, dummy cases, and logic tailored to the needs of all 16 AESIs in VAC4EU studies. They have also successfully completed the training process. Currently, Amirreza is working on double programming the eDCFs to minimise calculation errors and supporting abstractors during real case validation. Additionally, he actively participates in the VAC4EU-SPEAC Living Lab and contributes to the SeValid project.

Benedikt Becker

Benedikt he is working as an independent software consultant for VAC4EU, focusing on the development of the CodeMapper tool and the integration of medical coding systems

In the VAC4EU Academy she has authored the following courses:

• Codemapper

Benedikt Becker obtained a PhD in Medical Informatics at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, with the title “Vaccine Semantics”, where he developed automatic methods for recognizing, representing, and reasoning about vaccine-related information. Since then he continued with research as a post-doc in formal software verification, and as a software engineering in a US startup.

Albert Cid Royo

Albert is working as a Scientific Programmer at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).

In the VAC4EU Academy he has authored the following course:

• Github

At UMC Utrecht, Albert's role as a Scientific Programmer intertwines with his Ph.D. , focusing on leveraging Real World Data (RWD) to unlock insights in Pharmacoepidemiology. Through his work, the UMCU contributed to significant COVID-19 vaccine safety studies, partnering with VAC4EU to enhance vaccine surveillance in Europe. This collaboration has enabled UMCU to advance scientific understanding in a critical global health context.

His expertise in data science and passion for Real World Evidence (RWE) drive his mission to refine programming methodologies for evidence generation, including pattern recognition and signal analysis. His team's dedication to automatic data quality assessment strengthens the integrity and utility of RWD, ensuring robust and reliable outcomes in our research endeavors.

Susan Hahne

Susan is an infectious disease epidemiologist, public health specialist and medical doctor.

In the VAC4EU Academy she has authored the following courses:

• Vaccination Programmes

Susan's passion for infectious disease epidemiology started when she did an EPIET fellowship (1999-2001) and her subsequent training with the UK Faculty of Public Health. During this time she realised she wanted to work in infectious disease epidemiology, and she has done so ever since. Her work has been mostly focused on surveillance, outbreak investigation, research and teaching considering the epidemiology and control of vaccine preventable diseases. She published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, contributed to a number of book chapters and supervised several PhD students.

She collated her experience in her latest textbook ‘Vaccination Programmes’, an endeavour she completed with Paddy Farrington and Kaatje Bollaerts. She is pleased to report this book is now available free of charge. She is currently senior epidemiologist at the RIVM’s Centre for Infectious Disease, Epidemiology and Surveillance, in the Netherlands.

After having been an Associate Editor for Epidemiology & Infection between 2007 and 2014, she is now Editor-in-Chief since 2024.

Paddy Farrington

Paddy is emeritus professor of statistics at the Open University.

In the VAC4EU Academy he (co)-authored the following course:

• Vaccination Programmes

Paddy lived in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a few years, working as a translator and English teacher, and later joined the Immunisation Division of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in London, moving to the Open University in 1998. His academic interests are in statistical methodology, especially in relation to vaccination and infectious diseases. He now lives in Scotland.

Daniel Weibel

Daniel is working as Secretary General in the VAC4EU Secretariat.

In the VAC4EU Academy he has (co-)authored the following courses:

• Onboarding course

Daniel did his PhD in Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Throughout his career, he has participated in key roles in the H1N1 pandemic vaccine safety studies and was lead author on the global SOMNIA study investigating H1N1 vaccines and narcolepsy as well as the IMI funded ADVANCE safety POC studies. Daniel also coordinated the Global Vaccine Safety Multi Country study for the World Health Organisation and co-chaired the ISPE Vaccine Safety SIG. In 2021 he began his role as Assistant Professor at University Medical Center Utrecht and Principal Investigator for the VAC4EU Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine multi-center PASS study. At the same time, he was appointed Secretary General of VAC4EU.

Henriëtte Mulder

Henriette is working as a Project Manager in the VAC4EU Secretariat

In the VAC4EU Academy she has co-authored the following courses:

• VAC4EU Onboarding Course

Henriëtte has a background in International Management & Marketing and in Social Psychology and started her career as a Project Manager in Market Research. At the end of 2021 she joined the University Medical Center Utrecht and VAC4EU Secretariat. She helped set up a basic structure within the Secretariat that is being further developed and professionalised now. Currently, her focus of work within the Secretariat is on capacity building of VAC4EU members (course development within VAC4EU Academy and course evaluations), annual member feedback surveys, financial monitoring & and reporting, and setting up an internal VAC4EU Quality Management System.

Ashton Babcock

Ashton is working as a Project Manager in the VAC4EU Secretariat

In the VAC4EU Academy she has co-authored the following courses:

• VAC4EU Onboarding Course

After completing her BSc (Psychology with a splash of philosophy and digital art), Ashton began working as a Healthcare Informatics Coordinator. She later continued her education with an MSc in Social Policy and Public Health, then completed an internship at UMCU. Together with fellow Secretariat member Taylor Brown, Ashton laid the groundwork for a living systematic review on the performance of prediction models on COVID-19 vaccines. She then began working at UMCU full time in the Global Health Department, working for VAC4EU and other projects. Ashton’s work for VAC4EU is focused on communication and dissemination activities, including design, writing and review support, and social media management. Ashton also works as a freelance content creator with a focus on life science topics.

Taylor Brown

Taylor is working as a Project Manager in the VAC4EU Secretariat

In the VAC4EU Academy she has authored the following courses:

• Onboarding course

Taylor double-majored in BSc Global Public Health, and BSc Governance, Economics, and Development at Leiden University College The Hague. She first familiarised herself with VAC4EU through an internship in 2021 during her MSc Social Policy and Public Health at Utrecht University. Thoroughly enjoying the time spent with the organisation, she later applied for a more permanent role at the University Medical Center Utrecht. Here, she works as a junior project manager and dedicates her time to VAC4EU. Taylor currently works within the Secretariat, with a specialisation in tools and study support. She is looking forward to getting further involved in strategy and exploring her specialisations.

Dana Danielescu

Dana is working as a Project Manager in the VAC4EU Business Development team.

In the VAC4EU Academy she has (co-)authored the following courses:

• VAC4EU Onboarding Course

In her role as Project Manager Business Development, Dana contributes to the network by managing study requests and leading external outreach efforts. Dana plays a key role in building new partnerships and uncovering business
opportunities. Dana brings in her professional experience to VAC4EU to drive excellence in real-world evidence generation for vaccines’ safety and effectiveness research. After completing her studies in International Relations and European Studies, Dana’s career developed from administrative roles to operations management and then to project management. Throughout her career,
she has refined her skills in coordination and communication across diverse industries, working closely with cross-functional teams on research initiatives.