We are very pleased to welcome Erik Perfalk as a PhD student and Jakob Grøhn Damgaard as a full-time Research Assistant to our team. While Erik and Jakob may be new faces to some, others may have already encountered them on the 4th floor, where they are both members of the PSYCOP group – also known as Søren Dinesen Østergaard’s psychiatry/ ML group. This project focuses on developing robust prediction models to improve clinical outcomes for patients with mental illness, using machine learning and natural language processing techniques on electronic health records.

Meet Erik

Erik is a medical doctor and psychiatry resident with several years of clinical experience. He is now a PhD student affiliated with the Department of Affective Disorders at Aarhus University Hospital. Within the PSYCOP group, Erik focuses on ensuring the clinical relevance of prediction models, facilitating their potential integration into clinical decision support systems. He also investigates trust in machine learning-based clinical decision support systems among patients and healthcare staff.

In his personal life, Erik enjoys the chaos of raising three young children. He seizes every opportunity to explore the world, and enthusiastically follows the National Hockey League (NHL).

Meet Jakob

Jakob has been a member of the PSYCOP group for over two years, bringing with him a Master’s degree in Cognitive Science from Aarhus University. His professional interests lie in data embedding and visualisation. To date, Jakob has focused on projects aimed at predicting patients at risk of involuntary admission, with the goal of facilitating early identification and improved preventative treatment. Looking ahead, he will be developing an innovative visualisation framework to identify potential misdiagnoses of patients with mental illness. Additionally, he plans to conduct simulations to assess the cost-effectiveness of the developed prediction models, exploring their potential as decision support tools in clinical settings.

Outside of work, Jakob has a passion for building with LEGO bricks, having won 2022 season of the tv-competition LEGO Masters. He is also dedicated to a sport called roundnet, commonly known as Spikeball, serving as chairperson of the local club, Roundnet Aarhus. Recently, he represented Denmark on the National Team at the 2024 IRF Roundnet World Championships. 

We are very excited to have Erik and Jakob join our team and look forward to work with them. Welcome to CHC, Jakob and Erik!