Dr Maria Lisa Odland MD, PhD

Maria Lisa Odland

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Honorary Research Fellow Global Health

Contact details

Telephone
+47 971 255 69
Email
m.l.odland@bham.ac.uk
Address
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Maria Lisa is an Honorary Research Fellow in Global Health. Maria Lisa has been interested in global health before starting medical school in 2007 and spent her training in several different countries; Brazil, Australia and Malawi in addition to Norway.

She has a particular interest in reproductive health and holds a PhD on post abortion care from Malawi. Maria Lisa has recently started as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Birmingham and is currently working on other very important global health issues regarding health systems, global surgery, multimorbidity and non-communicable diseases.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Medicine 2019 (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU) 
  • Internship in Medicine 2014-2016 (Akershus University Hospital)
  • MD 2014 (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU)

Biography

Maria Lisa was enrolled in the PhD programme whilst studying medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and started research early on in her medical studies. Initial research was working on preeclampsia and congenital infections before she moved on to working on post abortion care in low income settings. In her PhD studies she trialled an intervention to improve the treatment of incomplete abortions in Malawi.

Her interest for global health was evident all through her medical studies and she entered into exchange semesters in Brazil, Australia and Malawi during her training. She finished her general internship in medicine at the Akershus University Hospital in Norway with focus on gynaecology, respiratory medicine, surgery and general practice. Straight after finishing her medical internship she travelled to Malawi to do the data collection for her PhD, which she defended in January 2019 just before starting here as a research fellow in Global Health at the University of Birmingham.

Research

EquiTrauma 

This project is to identify barriers in access to quality care for people who have been injured in lower and middle income countries, in particular Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda.

Funded by the NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Research (130036) and the Institute for Global Health Innovation at the University of Birmingham.

Research Groups and Centres

  • Global Health Research Unit, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Other activities

Board Member Norwegian Research School of Global Health 2017-2019

Publications

  • Ismael S, Odland ML et al.  The relationship between psychosocial circumstances and injuries in adolescents: an analysis of 54,000 individuals from 27 countries using the Global Schools-Based Student Health Survey, Accepted Plos Medicine

  • Odland ML et al. The prevalence of multimorbidity and associations with clinical outcomes among middle aged people in Golestan, Iran: A longitudinal cohort study, In submission

  • Odland ML et al. Identifying a basket of surgical procedures to standardize global surgical metrics: an international Delphi study. Annals of Surgery.  2020 Nov17. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000004611

  • Steinholt M, Xu S, Ha O , Phi  D, Odland ML and Odland JO Serum Concentrations of Selected Organochlorines in Pregnant Women and Associations with Pregnancy IJERPH October 2020 Outcomes. A Cross-Sectional Study from Two Rural Settings in Cambodia

  • Odland ML, Bockarie T, Wurie H, et al. Prevalence and access to care for cardiovascular risk factors in older people in Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open 2020;10(9):e038520. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038520 [published Online First: 2020/09/11]

  • Ignatowiz A and Odland ML et al. Knowledge and understanding of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Sierra Leone: perceptions of patients and community leaders. Accepted BMJ Open.