Ulrika Fernberg

About Ulrika Fernberg

Ulrika Fernberg is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Health Sciences and has been affiliated with the Unit for Medical Diagnostics since 2009. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Laboratory Science (2001) and a PhD in Medical Science with a specialization in Biomedicine from Örebro University (2019). Her doctoral thesis, “Arterial stiffness and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in young adults,” explored early indicators of cardiovascular health in young adults.

Research

Ulrika’s current research focuses on the use of ultrasound to study peripheral nerves. Her work involves establishing reference data from healthy individuals to support diagnostic assessments in patients with nerve dysfunction, as well as investigating the relationships between nerve structure and function.

Since autumn 2025, Ulrika has also served as a co-supervisor to Elma Hatic, PhD student in Medical Science, whose research evaluates updated guidelines from the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) regarding clinical assessment of bronchodilator response in spirometry testing.

Previous Research

Between 2014 and 2019, Ulrika was project coordinator and doctoral student in the research project Lifestyle, Biomarkers and Atherosclerosis (LBA study). The study examined associations between lifestyle factors, biomarkers, and vascular health in more than 800 young adults, using a comprehensive set of physiological assessment methods, including ultrasound, arterial stiffness measurements, fitness testing, physical activity monitoring, body composition analysis, and blood pressure evaluation.

Teaching

Ulrika serves as Deputy Programme Director for the Biomedical Laboratory Science Programme. She teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in subjects such as anatomy, physiology, statistics, research methodology, and imaging and functional medicine. Her teaching takes place within the Biomedical Laboratory Science Programme, the Radiography Programme, the Occupational Therapy Programme, and the Master’s Programme in Methods in Medical Diagnostics.

She also supervises degree projects at undergraduate and advanced levels. Since 2022, Ulrika has been actively engaged in integrating sustainable development into the Biomedical Laboratory Science and Radiography curricula.

Since 2022, Ulrika has been involved in integrating sustainable development into the Biomedical Laboratory Science and Radiographer programmes. She has also received educational funding to implement peer learning in courses involving work-integrated learning within the Biomedical Laboratory Science Programme.

Other assignments

Ulrika represents the Faculty of Medicine and Health in the planning of the educational conference “Pedagogical Frontiers in a Time of Crisis(es) and Transformation”, to be held in spring 2027. The conference will focus on how teaching and learning can be developed in a time characterised by uncertainty, complexity and change.