Annika Reintam Blaser was added to female researchers’ portal

This year, one researcher from the University of Tartu Faculty of Medicine – Research Fellow of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Annika Reintam Blaser – was added to the database of excellent female researchers AcademiaNet.

Executive Director of the Estonian Research Council Karin Jaanson said that although women are increasingly noticeable in decision-making bodies as well as among top executives, there is still much room for improvement before we can say that women researchers participate in promoting science as much as men. “AcademiaNet is a great opportunity to increase the global visibility of our excellent women researchers.”

In 2021, the Estonian Research Council submitted the names of 48 Estonian researchers, including Annika Reintam Blaser, to the AcademiaNet portal.

Reintam Blaser is an intensive care doctor who has worked at Tartu University Hospital, East Tallinn Central Hospital, the University Hospital of Bern and is currently a senior consultant at the intensive care centre of Luzerner Kantonsspital in Switzerland. All this time, Reintam Blaser has also been involved in the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care of the University of Tartu Institute of Clinical Medicine.

Her research focuses on gastrointestinal failure in intensive care patients. The research cycle of gastrointestinal failure began with her doctoral thesis (defended in 2008), during which a database of intensive care patients was launched. Today the database contains daily records of more than 3,000 intensive care patients and remains one of few databases in the world to record gastrointestinal symptoms in such level of detail.

She has authored nearly 100 high-level publications. She is a member of the executive committee and head of the clinical studies working group of the international research organisation The Abdominal Compartment Society and chairs the working group on gastrointestinal function of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

In 2018, together with Professor of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care and Head of the University of Tartu Institute of Clinical Medicine Joel Starkopf, she received the National Research Award in medical science for the research and development cycle “Increase in intra-abdominal pressure and gastrointestinal failure in intensive care patients”.