On 3 December 2024, the award ceremony for the ÖAW fellowships took place in the ballroom of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Amidst the impressive backdrop at Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2 in Vienna, young scientists and supporters of research gathered to honour the outstanding achievements of the scholarship holders. We are delighted that two scholarship recipients from the ÖAW DOC-team programme are affiliated with SFU and had the opportunity to present their research during the award ceremony.

Scholarship holders and research project

Petra Hitthaler-Waigner (SFU), Christian Puttinger, Sophie Strobl (SFU)
Visions of Quality of Life with a Rare Disease. A Transdisciplinary Approach to Identify, Measure and Improve Quality of Life with Epidermolysis Bullosa
Sigmund Freud Private University, Paracelsus Medical Private University (Psychotherapy Science + Psychology, Human Medicine, Psychology)

  • Petra Hitthaler-Waigner and Sophie Strobl are doctoral students in the PhD Psychology programme at SFU’s Faculty of Psychology.
  • The DOC team is supervised by an interdisciplinary and inter-university ‘supervisory team’ under the leadership of MMag. DDr. Gudrun Salamon, Faculty of Psychology, SFU Vienna.
  • The total funding amount for the project is around €441,000.

The DOC-team programme of the ÖAW

With the DOC-team programme, the Austrian Academy of Sciences supports groups of doctoral students (3-4 persons) from the humanities, social sciences and cultural sciences who jointly tackle a problem that can only be solved in an interdisciplinary manner. The involvement of doctoral students from the natural sciences, medicine or technical sciences is encouraged.

Epidermolysis bullosa research: Dissertations on pain management, health identity and quality of life

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a rare, chronic skin disease. Even minimal friction of the skin can lead to painful wounds and blisters. As there is still no cure, it is crucial to improve the quality of life of those affected and their relatives in the here and now. The interdisciplinary DOC team looks at life with the disease from a medical, psychological and psychotherapeutic perspective.

Pain is an essential part of the daily lives of those affected. The dissertation by Christian Puttinger, MD, examines how pain and health status can be measured in EB. In her dissertation, Sophie Strobl, MSc, analyses the construct of health identity in the context of EB and how the understanding of health and illness affects pain and coping strategies. Building on these findings, Mag. Petra Hitthaler-Waigner, MSc. will derive and apply specific intervention approaches for EB patients and relatives in her dissertation in order to sustainably improve their quality of life. MMag. DDr. Gudrun Salamon heads the HEALTH Lab – Competence Centre for Medical and Health Psychology at SFU Vienna and contributes her experience and expertise on the psychosocial effects of EB to the project.