Dr. Maiken Engelstad is Deputy Director General at the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services, where she leads the Unit for Health Workforce, Research and Innovation.

She holds a DPhil in Molecular Virology from the University of Oxford, a Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Since joining the Ministry in 1997, Dr. Engelstad has held a number of senior leadership positions in the Norwegian health sector, including serving as Director General of the Specialized Health Care Unit from 2022 to 2024.

Her responsibilities span policy development in specialist health education, health workforce planning and authorization, patient safety, health research and clinical trials, personalized medicine, international research collaboration, quality registries, innovation, the health industry, priority setting, and tertiary care.

She has played a key role in developing policies for results-based financing of clinical research and clinical trials, and she has contributed to the development of Norway’s national system for the managed introduction of new health technologies in specialist health services.

Dr. Engelstad also serves as a member of the General Assembly of the Brain Health Partnership.