September 23, 2024 | News | New Faces at MPIDR
Welcome, Anna-Kathleen Piereth!
Anna-Kathleen Piereth started as a student assistant at MPIDR and is now a PhD student in the Laboratory of Population Health. © MPIDR/Schulz
The Laboratory of Population Health welcomes Anna-Kathleen Piereth as a new member. Anna-Kathleen comes from the University of Rostock, where she graduated in Demography (MSc) by defending her master thesis "The Demography of Inpatient Care: Insights from the German Diagnosis Related Groups (G-DRG) Statistics". Prior to her studies in Demography, she worked as a research associate at the Research Institute IDC of the SRH Wilhelm Löhe University of Applied Sciences in Fürth, Germany, where she received both her Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Health Care Management with honors. Since last year, Anna-Kathleen had been working as a student assistant in the Laboratory of Population Health at MPIDR and is now starting her journey as a PhD student.
When did you start?
The starting point for my scientific career was my work in various publicly funded and contract research projects in the German healthcare market. I collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative care-related data in direct exchange with service providers and health insurers. At the same time, I became aware of many challenges in the healthcare system and how these are influenced by demographic developments. These experiences were the impetus for my further Master studies in Demography and the desire to acquire advanced demographic methods.
What’s your job at MPIDR and how long will you be working here?
I will be working as a doctoral student in the Laboratory of Population Health at the MPIDR for the next three years. My doctoral project focuses on how the prevention efforts of recent decades have changed disease histories in the population and thus the overall composition of the population. A further research aim is to explore to which extent these changes are associated with (future) population dynamics such as the increases in life expectancy. The focus will initially lie on the analysis of Swedish register data by leveraging statistical learning methods. This will subsequently be extended to the investigation of other low mortality countries.
What is your motivation to work in this field of research?
I am convinced that interdisciplinary research in the fields of demography/epidemiology can provide well-founded answers to urgent healthcare problems and deficits in the healthcare system. The scientific findings thus contribute significantly to the responsible management and ensuring of healthcare in the future, which is also one of the main drivers of my research motivation. Against this background, in addition to analyzing the Swedish population, I am aiming at investigating the patient profiles in Germany, although this will involve considerable additional work in terms of data application and analysis.
Why did you choose MPIDR as your new employer?
The MPIDR is one of the worldwide leading research centers for population science and combines the research fields of demography and health in a unique way. It offers an excellent research infrastructure with great supervisors, an internationally renowned doctoral program (IMPRS-PHDS) and very professional support processes. I am also delighted by the always respectful and appreciative atmosphere at the institute, which I was already able to experience during my time as a student assistant at the MPIDR.
What is your favorite and what is your least favorite part about work?
I really enjoy the collaboration with colleagues and supervisors on the joint journey to new insights. I am therefore particularly looking forward to the exchange with the scientists and other PhD students at the MPIDR and to getting to know the research team in Stockholm, with which I am affiliated as a doctoral student at Karolinska Institutet – even if I can already guess that the Swedish climate will probably be too cold for me (at first) 😉.