Health services research in children and adolescents: Prof. Dr. Freia De Bock appointed
28.03.2022 12:38
From April 1, Prof. Dr. Freia De Bock will start as a W2 Professor for Health Services Research in Childhood and Adolescence with a focus on child protection in medicine at the University Hospital Düsseldorf.
Prof. De Bock's area of expertise is assigned to the Department of General Pediatrics, Neonatology, and Pediatric Cardiology (Director: Prof. Dr. Ertan Mayatepek). The professorship is funded for the first five years by the Paul and Marianne Pap Foundation. Prior to her appointment, Prof. De Bock was an Associate Professor at the Universities of Heidelberg and Cologne and also headed Department 2 of the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), "Effectiveness and Efficiency of Health Education."
Prof. De Bock received her doctorate (summa cum laude) from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich in 2005. She completed her specialist training as a pediatrician at the Asklepios Clinic Sankt Augustin, Department of General Pediatrics, the Department of Pediatrics at Heidelberg University Hospital, and the Department of Pediatrics at Mannheim University Hospital. She completed her specialist training in 2012. During this time, she completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard Schooll of Public Health, Boston. In 2011, she earned the Baden-Württemberg Certificate for University Didactics in Medicine. In 2012, she completed her Master's degree in Public Health at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She completed her habilitation with a cumulative habilitation at the Mannheim Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg, in 2014.
From 2008 until her appointment to Düsseldorf in 2022, Prof. De Bock headed the cross-sectional area "Early Prevention and Health Promotion" at the Mannheim Institute for Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine at the Mannheim Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University. Between 2013 and 2016, she also completed further training in neuropediatrics/social pediatrics at the Social Pediatric Center Frankfurt-Mitte, where she established health services research for children with chronic illnesses and disabilities.
In 2017, Prof. De Bock was appointed an adjunct professor at the Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg. In 2021, he was appointed an adjunct professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne.
Prof. De Bock conducts research at the interface between health services research and public health, drawing on her pediatrician perspective, always focusing on the target group of children and adolescents. She also brings extensive health policy experience and networks from her leadership role at the Federal Center for Health Education, which she intends to utilize, among other things, for the topic of preventive child protection.
She currently leads several scientific consortia and projects on mental health, the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, two projects on the care situation of children with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities, and another on promoting physical activity among older people in their community and care facilities. Prof. De Bock has published extensively, has extensive teaching experience, and is involved in health policy and serves on numerous expert panels nationally and internationally.