Biography

I hold a position as professor in general practice. I lead a research group focusing on the management of cardiovascular disease in primary care, from early detection of disease and risk-stratification to risk-based treatment.

My teaching activities cover being involved in educational programs at the bachelor (CRU) and master (Summa) level at the medical school, and also being involved in the specialty training and post-graduate training courses of general practitioners. I am a member of the steering committee of the Dutch 'kaderopleiding hart- en vaatziekten' for general practitioners and actively participate in its teaching program.

My research group has contributed to improving the diagnosis of heart failure and deep venous thrombosis in the primary care setting, and our studies have been used as building blocks for diagnostic algorithms recommended by the (inter)national guidelines regarding these diseases. By showing that unrecognized heart failure is common in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and also in type 2 diabetes, our work has helped revolutionize clinical practice. I contributed to the development of guidelines on heart failure, atrial fibrillation, left ventricular hypertrophy and Non-ST elevated Acute Coronary Syndrome for the European Society of Cardiology, and also to the educational practice guideline documents on heart failure and atrial fibrillation for the European Primary Care Cardiovascular Society. Over the years I have been actively involved in working groups of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, and was instrumental in translating the interactive website 'heartfailurematters.org' to Dutch, making it understandable for patients and their carers.

Within the UMC Utrecht, I am member of the coreteam of the theme ('speerpunt') Circulatory Health.

I managed to acquire ample funding for the clinical research activities of our research group. In 2017 I became the successful recipient of a research grant of Cardiovascular Research Netherlands (CVON), with myself being the main applicant of a consortium that will focus on early diagnosis of heart failure, atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease in patients who participate in primary care disease management programs for COPD or type 2 diabetes. The aim is to facilitate early treatment and improve prognosis by preventing acute cardiovascular events such as acute heart failure, stroke and acute coronary syndrome.

I am coordinator of the Research Programme Cardiovascular Health of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care of the UMC Utrecht. In addition I am member of the leadership team of the Julius Center, chair of research of the department of general practice, and board member of the management team of the department of General Practice within the Julius Center.

I collaborate with other departments of the Julius Center (epidemiology, public health and nursing sciences) and the clinical departments of Cardiology, Vascular Surgery, Vascular Medicine and renal disease, as well as with the department of imaging.