The program is disease driven, but also focuses on methodology, using epidemiologic principles to answer medical questions.
Rick Grobbee specializes in cardiovascular epidemiology. Grobbee: "We collaborate with all disease-driven research programs, interacting in the design of research, advising about the layout and architecture of studies, and supporting analysis of data. We also initiate research, mainly in oncology and cardiovascular disease, but also in infectious diseases and more recently in psychiatry."
Recent highlights include research on ‘natural bypasses’; the collateral coronary circulation of the heart. Visualizing this blood stream and understanding the genetics is creating insight that may ultimately enable triggering of collateral circulation. Other recent highlights include the development of a non-operative early diagnostic biopsy tool for detecting breast cancer and continuing Octopus trials, a technique in which a coronary artery bypass is grafted onto the beating heart.
Grobbee aims to increase international collaboration, especially in the area of drug trials, in which Clinical Epidemiology already teams up with hundreds of clinics around the world. Grobbee: "We aim to become a trusted partner for drug developing companies. We stimulate pharmaceutical companies to cooperate with university researchers from a very early phase of drug testing. The quality of many pharmaceutical studies can be improved. The industry response is encouraging."