ORCID: 0000-0001-8356-5565
Marit Eika Jørgensen was born January 1967 and graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen in 1995. Her early scientific carrier work focused on the burden of type 2 diabetes among Greenland Inuit, work that led to her PhD. thesis entitled “Diabetes among Greenland Inuit and its associated cardiovascular risk” at the University of Copenhagen in 2003.
In addition to a clinical carrier, Marit Eika Jørgensen has had Clinical Epidemiology as her discipline. As of January 2023, Marit is the author or co-author of >300 original publications. Complete List MAEJ publications.
Marit Eika Jørgensen has made contributions to our understanding of diabetes in the following areas:
- Population studies of diabetes among > 5000 Greenland Inuit since 1998. These studies demonstrated the importance of genetic studies of diabetes in population isolates where genetic effect sizes are several times larger than any previous findings in large-scale GWAS
- The epidemiology of diabetes in Denmark. Marit initiated a new diabetes register in 2016, covering the entire population of Denmark. This made it possible to demonstrate that diabetes incidence has declined since 2011, but while mortality of diabetes has declined substantially from 1995 – 2017, the absolute number with diabetes continues to increase.
- Applying novel epidemiological methods to improve prediction of- and screening for diabetes complications. MEJ has used data driven methods such as Survival Forest analysis to develop and validate risk scores of cardiovascular disease, e.g. the Steno Type 1 diabetes interactive risk engine. Recently, MEJ’s research derived and validated a novel, high-performing end-stage-kidney-disease prediction model for risk stratification in the adult type 1 diabetes population. This model may improve clinical decision making and potentially guide early intervention (www.sdcc.dk/T1RiskEngine).
Marit Eika Jørgensen has, as part of her research activity, supervised a total of 25 Ph D students. Marit has taken upon a huge burden of teaching, both graduate and post-graduate, and a substantial part of this have been at international courses, particularly low- and middle-income countries.
E-mail: maej@peqqik.gl