On 1 May 2020, the management at Aarhus University Hospital appointed specialty registrar at Department of Surgery at the Regional Hospital in Randers, Rune Erichsen, as new head consultant at Department of Clinical Epidemiology (DCE).

A unanimous hiring committee appointed Rune for the position. Besides his position in Randers, Rune was also clinical associate professor at DCE.

Henrik Toft Sørensen remains in the management of DCE

Rune Erichsen will replace the current head consultant and professor and chair Henrik Toft Sørensen, who has decided to step down as head consultant to focus on further strengthening his research, the department’s finances, international collaborations, and his other responsibilities as professor and chair at DCE.

- I am very impressed by the development DCE has undergone under the management of Henrik Toft Sørensen, who has built the department from the bottom to a department that is at the very top of the international elite. Luckily, Henrik Toft Sørensen remains as professor and chair and the current growth of DCE’s research is in safe hands in cooperation with the department’s new head consultant Rune Erichsen, says chief medical officer Claus Thomsen.

Surgeon and captain

Rune Erichsen, age 40, has trained at Aarhus University and became medical specialist in surgery in 2019. Besides his work, he is also reserve captain at the Danish Artillery Regiment at Oksbøl.

The hospital management is looking forward to the collaboration with Rune Erichsen:

- Rune Erichsen has great clinical experience as a surgeon and deep clinical epidemiological insight, particularly through his long-standing collaboration with DCE, so we are confident that Rune is the right person for the job, says Claus Thomsen.

Rune Erichsen knows DCE very well, as he has been affiliated with the department for the past 15 years – initially as research year and PhD student and later as external researcher and associate professor.

- For many years, I have had research activities in cooperation with DCE, and I see DCE as a department with an incredibly high standard in all the services they provide. Clinical epidemiology is extremely important to, among other things, understand and improve patients’ prognosis in the broad sense, says Rune Erichsen and continues:

- I look very much forward to being at DCE full-time and working with all the talented employees as DCE.

From 1 May 2020, Rune Erichsen will make out the department management at DCE together with professor and chair Henrik Toft Sørensen.

Translation of the official statement from Aarhus University Hospital management on 27 January 2020.