(Vienna, 22 March 2019) Christine Wallisch, PhD student at MedUni Vienna and employee of MedUni Vienna's Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems (CeMSIIS) was presented with the ÖGEpi Best Paper Award 2019 by the Austrian Society of Epidemiology.
Wallisch is receiving the award as lead author of the publication "External validation of two Framingham cardiovascular risk equations and the Pooled Cohort equations: A nationwide registry analysis". Co-authors are Georg Heinze, Christoph Rinner, Gerald Mundigler, Wolfgang Winkelmayer and Daniela Dunkler.
The study group led by Daniela Dunkler verified that a predictive model for cardiovascular disease from the 1990s still produces the best results. The so-called Framlingham cardiovascular risk calculator was developed in 1991 on the basis of data gathered in the USA between 1968 and 1975. Using figures from the Federation of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions gathered in Austria between 2009 and 2014, the MedUni Vienna study team investigated whether this prognostic model is still valid today. The result: even in the 21st century, it is still providing the best and most accurate results – especially for Austria or other Central European countries with a similar lifestyle.
Since the model tends to underestimate the risk of a cardiovascular event for people over 65, MedUni Vienna is currently working to improve it, so that it also produces an accurate prediction of risk for people of 65+.
About Christine Wallisch
Christine Wallisch studied statistics at the University of Vienna from 2009 until 2014. During her studies she received several merit-based scholarships and was also included in the "Class of Excellence". Since 2015, she has been working at the Medical University of Vienna at the Institute of Clinical Biometrics and studying on the PhD course "Medical Informatics, Biostatistics & Complex Systems", which she expects to complete this year. She won an "Oral Presentation Award" at MedUni Vienna's PhD Symposium 2017. Alongside her research work focusing on "statistical modelling", she also teaches on the human medicine and PhD course.
Service: International Journal of Cardiology
„External validation of two Framingham cardiovascular risk equations and the Pooled Cohort equations: A nationwide registry analysis.“ C. Wallisch, G. Heinze, C. Rinner, G. Mundigler, W. Winkelmayer, D. Dunkler. https://doi.org./10.1016/j.ijcard.2018.11.001.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527318331450?dgcid=author