Elena Rocca

Elena Rocca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), specializing in the intersection of scientific evidence, clinical practice, and philosophy with a focus on medicine safety and decision-making.

Her research centers on pharmacovigilance and drug safety, particularly causal assessment methodologies like the Dx3 framework for small datasets, clinical reasoning, and the philosophical dimensions of evidence hierarchies. She investigates how patient voices are marginalized in adverse event reporting systems and explores the role of biological mechanisms in health predictions. Her work bridges practical pharmacovigilance challenges with theoretical frameworks in philosophy of science.

Analysis of her 2020-2025 publications reveals a consistent trajectory in pharmacovigilance innovation, with growing emphasis on dispositional causality theory, pandemic-era safety monitoring, and ethical dimensions of evidence-based policy. Key journals include Drug Safety and Social Epistemology, reflecting her interdisciplinary approach spanning clinical practice, public health, and epistemology.

Dr. Rocca contributes to the Health Communication and Medicines and Patient Safety research groups, leading the active project 'Causality, complexity and evidence in pharmacovigilance' which addresses methodological gaps in detecting unknown drug side effects. Her 2024 textbook 'Philosophy of Science' (Palgrave Macmillan) further establishes her authority in integrating philosophical rigor with biomedical practice.