Eva Maria Hodel is an epidemiologist and has been part of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine since 2022, currently as senior researcher and equity officer. Her research focuses on pandemic preparedness. She built up and manages the «Bern, get ready» (BEready) cohort and is managing a work package of the ESACPE project.
BEready is a large, long-term study which involves 1569 households, including adults, children and pets, in the canton of Bern. The overall aim is to establish BEready as a 'pandemic preparedness cohort', a cohort with a well-characterised study population of households, which has an infrastructure to conduct studies about infectious diseases, and which can be rapidly mobilised to respond to a new pandemic. BEready aims to understand the epidemiology and transmission of infectious diseases (particularly viral respiratory pathogens) in households, and to engage diverse communities in efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness.
The ESACPE project aims to improve the efficiency and scalability of early pandemic response plans in Europe. Eva Maria has been involved in a scoping review to identify other pandemic preparedness cohorts.
Eva Maria’s work is a vital contribution to pandemic preparedness, and we warmly congratulate her on the well-deserved habilitation.
