Who are you?
My name is Sonia Roldan, I am from Spain and I hold a Master in Pharmacy by the University of Alcala de Henares (Spain). I lived in Warsaw, Poland for a year and I have been living in London, UK, for the past three years. I have been working at the European Medicines Agency for the past two years, focusing on the safety of medicines intake during pregnancy and the evaluation of medicines for the paediatric population.
What made you apply for a PROMINENT PhD position?
A PhD studentship is a tremendous career opportunity. The PROMINENT program permits to contribute to science in an interesting area of research with high public health impact. The multidisciplinary nature of work and the potential secondments also called my interest. In addition, the reputation of the University of Groningen, distinguished coordinators and international collaborations made this program a very attractive option.
What are your expectations of living in the Netherlands?
Learning Dutch and improving my cycling skills! The Netherlands is known for being an open-minded country as well as highly eco-friendly, and I want to be part of that. I expect to meet local people, get to know the culture and traditions. I am sure I will have a very enjoyable time in the Netherlands.
What are your expectations or/goals with the project?
Personal development, research expertise, clinical knowledge and understanding, information gathering, project and time management, data analysis, writing and presentation skills, flexibility, problem solving and constancy among others.
What are your future ambitions?
My ambition is working on an area with a positive effect in the public health, getting to the point in which my opinion and knowledge can have a societal impact. The way to do so is still unclear and even though I currently consider academia, industry and the regulatory field the main options, I believe that the next years will help me find the most appropriate path.
Sonia Roldan Muñoz
I am a PhD student at the department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology of the University Medical Centre Groningen. My project is part of the PROMINENT program. PROMINENT is a four year program composed of 16 international PhD students who will work on projects focusing on personalised medicine in diabetic chronic disease management. The projects within the PROMINENT program focus on all different aspects of personalized medicine from disease mechanisms and drug development to the regulation and good utilization of medicines. The aim of the program is to contribute to the implementation and optimalisation of personalised medicine in all of these societal domains.
Since September 2018, I started my project under the supervision of Prof. Hans Hillege and dr. Peter Mol. Within my PhD project, we aim to integrate patient preferences into regulatory decisions. To do so, we will explore which factors influence the prescription of the different anti-diabetic drugs and the patients choices. We will also evaluate the current practices of medicines approval, compare the available efficacy and safety information among drug classes and apply a MCDA model to quantitatively weight the different drug effects. Ideally, we will be able to develop material that meets the patients’ needs and we will find a manner to feedback regulators with the outcomes.
