New employees at Department of pharmacy

Department of Pharmacy is happy to welcome two new associate professors in January 2017

Associate professor, Research group in Natural products and medicinal chemistry:

MsSci, PhD

Terje Vasskog (1976) is born I Vadsø and moved to Tromsø in 1997. He studied chemistry at UiT, and has a Cand. Scient and Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry. His PhD thesis focused on medicines in the environment, developing new extraction- and mass spectrometric methods for analyses. After defending his PhD, Terje has been employed as a researcher at MabCent within marine bioprospecting and the last 5 years as a researcher at Norut. In his last job he has been doing both contract research as well as working on larger projects given financial support from the Norwegian research council and other external resources. Main projects the last years have been structure elucidation of bioactive peptides from marine organisms, lipid analyses, as well as different projects comprising analyses of drugs and other biological active compounds from biological material.

His leisure time is very much spent on fishing, hunting, top tours (skiing) and soccer.

Associate professor, Research group in clinical pharmacy and pharmacoepidemiology (IPSUM):

BScPharm, MPharmSc, MClinPharm, PhD, ACHI

Elin Lehnbom is a Swedish pharmacist, researcher and academic. Her research focuses on using electronic tools to improve medication management and ultimately patient outcomes. As a postdoc in the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research (CHSSR) at the University of New South Wales, Elin helped improve a software designed specifically for time and motion studies, namely WOMBAT (Work Observation Method By Activity Timing), which has been used in numerous research studies internationally. She was also involved in the design of POSSUM (Precise Observation System for the Safe Use of Medicines), a tool for studying real-time medication administrations.

In 2017, Elin received funding from Forte (Forskningsrådet för hälsa, arbetsliv och välfärd, Sweden) to conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of enhanced pharmaceutical care and the use of an eHealth app in helping patients better manage their medications. This study will be conducted in Sweden using mixed methods including focus group interviews, direct observations using WOMBAT, questionnaires, and data from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. 

Prior to joining the University of Tromsø, Elin was a Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the University of Sydney.