Tolonen, Hanna

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Hanna Tolonen is a distinguished public health leader with over two decades of experience in epidemiology, statistics, and health survey methodology. She earned a PhD in public health and epidemiology, an MSc in Statistics, and holds a specialist qualification in management.

Since June 2024, she has served as Director of Research, Development and Innovation at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in Helsinki. Key research areas of Dr. Tolonen include the harmonization and standardization of health examination surveys across Europe, tackling issues like non-response bias and cross-country comparability as well as monitoring and prevention of NCDs. She has been involved in several major EU initiatives, including JACARDI, JA PreventNCD, PHIRI, InfAct, Bridge Health, EHES, and HBM4EU.

Her academic work includes over 100 peer-reviewed publications in epidemiology, cardiovascular risk, obesity, survey methodology, and environmental health. She holds an Adjunct Professorship (title of Docent) in public health at the University of Eastern Finland.