Giedrė Kvedaravičienė / MF archive
On 2nd of February, Giedrė Kvedaravičienė, PhD, was appointed as the new head of the Biobank of Lithuanian Population and Rare Diseases.
Kvedaravičienė earned her doctorate in Economics from Vytautas Magnus University last year. She has over 15 years of work experience, including 10 years in top management positions. During the preparation of her dissertation, she spent more than two years gaining knowledge and experience abroad:
- In 2021-2022, she spent six months as a fellow at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, learning about best practices in health innovation policy development and implementation.
- In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and spent a year at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, working closely with research teams from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In addition to her highly educational research fellowships in the USA and Israel, Kvedaravičienė also gained work experience in Brussels, representing the world’s largest manufacturers of radiology, electromedical devices, the producers of such digital technologies as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), used in the legislative processes concerned with the European Health Data Space and its related data security in EU institutions. Over the past eight years, Kvedaravičienė has actively contributed to the promotion of innovation in medicine and its responsible and ethical implementation in clinical practice.
“The development of the Biobank of Lithuanian Population and Rare Diseases, especially in the context of the upcoming and impressive Science Centre of the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University, is a tremendous opportunity for the entire Lithuanian research community in the fields of health and biotechnology to consolidate the available resources. It allows us to direct them in a targeted manner, enable the development and implementation of precision medicine for the benefit of Lithuanian patients, and make an important international contribution to scientific progress,” Kvedaravičienė noted.
According to Kvedaravičienė, the Biobank of Lithuanian Population and Rare Diseases has a very important mission to supplement the activities of the other participants in the national biobank by filling an important niche in biological sample and health data, allowing for a broader, more systematic and in-depth analysis of the phenotypic realisation of the population and the determinants of human and public health. “Population bio samples and health data collections will enable parallel analyses, and the collation of different symptoms and diseases. This can help to identify previously unknown relationships and interactions, and contribute to the analysis and prediction of public health needs, a better understanding of the aetiopathogenesis of diseases, and the development of innovative solutions for the diagnosis of diseases for therapeutic purposes,” Kvedaravičienė explained. According to the new head of the biobank, the team’s aim is to cooperate as closely as possible with physicians, scientists, researchers and other relevant stakeholders to identify the most important data priorities and needs that can be addressed using the biobank. “Proactive communication and collaboration are essential to ensure a positive outcome for all,” she concluded.