Questions and AnswersProf. Dr. Andrea Ammon

You are trained as a physician but now you juggle with data. What led you to your current job?
I had just finished my education when the first campaign for HIV and AIDS education began. At that time specialists were sent to every public health department to provide HIV/AIDS awareness training at the local level. I did this for 7 years. During the last 2 years, I also completed my studies in Public Health, and in 1996 I went to the Robert-Koch-Institute in Berlin. At that time the Robert-Koch-Institute had just started to offer a training program in Field Epidemiology. We learned how to investigate outbreaks of infectious disease, perform surveillance and design epidemiological studies. The focus of my research was food-borne infections. I’ve now been in Stockholm for 4 years.

When you started your medical studies, did you plan to take this career path?
No, not at all. It wasn’t even possible; at that time, the job “infectious disease epidemiologist” wasn’t defined in Germany. I wanted to be a paediatrician. While I finished my Ph.D. thesis and during the last year of my medical studies, which takes place in the hospital, I realized that physicians spend most of their time helping patients deal with their symptoms. This individual therapy is important. However, prevention is just as important. And I like this field of work very much.

What is your typical workday like?
I do a lot of travelling to meetings and conferences. However, my most important duty is to build up my department. Right now we have a team of 33 people, and another 15 positions still need to be filled. In addition, it’s imperative to implement the "Vision of Surveillance of Communicable Diseases" that we announced last year. For this reason, we’re actively exchanging ideas with colleagues from all member nations of the European Union.

Is this job a burden for you?
No, it’s a challenge that I see very positively. We provide the scientific data that the countries and local authorities can use to make decisions. The wonderful thing about my job is that in a relatively short period of time, scientific results are available.

From Munich with a short stop in Berlin, now you find yourself in Stockholm. Where are you at home?
My journey has always taken me farther North – although actually I wanted to go the other direction! I’m a fan of southern Europe. I really like Italy and Cyprus. However, Stockholm is also a very beautiful city. I live outside the city on one of the islands of the Stockholm archipelago with a view of the ocean. It’s very peaceful there, which I enjoy very much because in my job I’m always dealing with many people. There are enormous forests in which one can walk for hours and really relax.

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