Associate Professor Helga Zoega

Helga Zoega is a pharmacoepidemiologist with expertise in medicine use, safety and effectiveness within mental health. She is a Scientia A/Professor at the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, and a Professor of Public Health at the University of Iceland. 

Zoega’s research uses 'big health data' to generate real-world safety evidence on prescription medicines across the lifespan, focused on treatment outcomes for mental health disorders in vulnerable populations, e.g. pregnant women and children. She leads several international studies and research consortia combining high-quality data across Australia, the Nordic countries, North America and Asia. Zoega has led commissioned work for the Australian Department of Health, resulting in federal policy changes in 2019 and 2020. Her research findings inform current clinical guidelines and medicines regulation.

Dr Zoega holds an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University (2006) and a PhD in Public Health from the University of Iceland (2011). She was a postdoctoral fellow in Epidemiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York (2011-2013) and has been a faculty member of Medicine at the University of Iceland since 2012 (Professor in 2016). She was awarded a UNSW Scientia Fellowship in Medicine (2018-2026) and leads a research program in Life-Course Pharmacoepidemiology in collaboration with the Medicines Intelligence (MedIntel) research program at the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney.