Dr Despena (Debbie) Andrioti Bygvraa MSc, PhD in Health Economics, is a Senior researcher and Head of Studies with the Centre of Maritime Health and Society. Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark.
She served as Head of the Research Department with the National School of Public Health, Athens Greece, for 12 years and in leadership positions with the MoH, as well as advisor to the Minister in health policy issues.
During 2001-2005 was appointed National Seconded Expert with WHO/EURO (Copenhagen) to work on health policy analysis and health workforce development.
She has been teaching Public Health, Health Economics and Policy for more than 15 years in BA and MSc programmes. Debbie initiated and organized a number of international training courses. In addition, she supervises MSc and PhD theses in SDU and affiliated Universities. Furthermore, she successfully participated in the respective Academic Committees for curricula evaluation.
She has been leading or actively involved in several research projects. The project “Cross Border Cooperation in Public Health” aiming at monitoring and improvement of cross-border population’s health was included in the success stories by the EU DG REGIO.
Dr Debbie Bygvraa has published more than 100 articles, reports and papers in various scientific journals on topics including the assessment of maritime doctors training needs, occupational injuries and diseases of fishermen and seafarers as well the economic analysis of repatriations due to illness and injuries. Three of her publications are core readings for educational curricula in higher education. She is EU expert on health workforce planning and forecasting issues. Her research interests include the impact of working environment on fishermen and seafarers’ health and safety, maritime human resources skills and competences planning and management as well as health systems responsiveness to their needs.