Research areas

Tutored by Professor Lars Gram, Odense University’s Clinical Pharmacology Unit, JH established a pharmacoepidemiologic research line in the late 1980s. A major breakthrough came in 1990 with the advent of the Odense University Pharmacoepidemiologic Database (OPED). It has complete capture of all computerised prescriptions in Region of Southern Denmark (population 1.2 million) which allows a detailed account of how drugs are distributed among different users and - by linkage to other data resources - the experience of the drug users in terms of adverse events. Among the research interests are studies of rational prescribing, neurological diseases caused by drug treatment, interventions to improve prescribing among GPs, development of indices to characterise patterns of prescribing and management of dyspepsia. Among the collaborators are the General Practice Research Unit, the Research Unit of Demographics and Statistics and a number of clinical research units at Odense University Hospital.

Recent activities include studies of association between long-term drug use and cancer, on self-controlled designs and on use of communicative measures of risk and benefit.