Pr. Risto Kaaja finished the French-Finnish High School in 1971, thereafter, studied medicine in the Faculte Libre de Medecine de Lille in France. He became docteur en medecine (MD) in Lille in 1978. He specialized in internal medicine 1986 in Helsinki, and got his PhD in 1985. He became associate professor in 1996 in the Helsinki University. He became a clinical hypertension specialist (European Society of Hypertension) in 2001 and got special competence for treating diabetes in 2002 . He worked as full- time obstetric physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Helsinki University Hospital since 1986 until 2008 and started as professor of medicine in the Turku University in January 2009. He has been opponent in academic dissertations in Finland and Sweden and supervised seven theses. Three theses are ongoing and will be completed in 2015-2016. Pr. Kaaja has been member of many clinical societies, board member of the International Society of Obstetric Medicine (ISOM) and a member of the Editorial board of the journal of this society (Obstetric Medicine. He has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Symposiums on Women´s Health Issues in Thrombosis and Haemostasis (2015 in Berlin). He has also been a member of the consensus meeting on hormone replacement therapy by the European Society of the Cardiology (2006 and 2007). Just recently he directed The Current Therapy Guidelines for Gestational Diabetes and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolisms in Finland. Professor Kaaja has been elected as President of the Finnish Society of Internal Medicine in February 2015.
Pr. Kaaja has over 200 original publications, 50 reviews in international and local medical journals and books. His main interests have been related to interactions between different medical conditions and pregnancy, above all pre-eclampsia and it´s connections to cardiovascular health later in women´s life. He has also written many papers on autoimmune diseases, thromboembolic complications and treatment with low molecular weight heparins. In diabetes, his studies have covered introductions of new insulin analogues during pregnancy and he has been investigator in all pivotal insulin analogue studies (insulin lispro, aspart, detemir) concerning safety and efficacy during pregnancy.