Olli T. Raitakari MD, PhD

Olli Raitakari is a highly respected expert in his field and is excellently placed to take charge of the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium’s efforts to combine the datasets from the world’s four biggest longitudinal studies on cardiovascular risk factors, to make globally available a unique Finnish research dataset and to promote the prevention one of the nation’s biggest public health problems. It is expected that the research conducted under the direction of Professor Raitakari will have significant social impact.
Cardiovascular diseases account for almost half of all deaths in the Finnish working-age population and constitute a major public health problem not just in Finland but around the world. Exposure to cardiovascular risk factors begins in childhood. Lifestyle and environmental factors in early childhood are significantly reflected in many cardiovascular risk factors in adulthood, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood pressure.