In her PhD thesis, Doris van der Smissen describes the development, evaluation and implementation of the web-based advance care planning program ‘Verken uw wensen voor zorg en behandeling’ (English translation: ‘Explore your preferences for treatment and care’). The program was developed and implemented together with patients, relatives and patient organizations.
Advance care planning (ACP) supports the conversation about future treatment and care so that care can be provided in line with people’s preferences. Web-based programs can support people in the first steps of ACP, such as preparing discussions about treatment and care with their relatives and healthcare professionals.
The web-based ACP program supports people in thinking about, discussing and recording of treatment and care preferences. The program contains information, videos and questions. Users can print their answers to the questions. Interviews and the before-and-after evaluation study showed that people found the program user-friendly, understandable and useful. The program supported people with chronic disease in reflecting on preferences for treatment and care and helped them to feel more ready for ACP.
Link to the web-based ACP program: https://www.thuisarts.nl/keuzehulp/verken-uw-wensen-voor-zorg-en-behandeling
Link to PhD thesis: https://www.publicatie-online.nl/publicaties/doris-van-der-smissen, password: 169086
If you are interested to attend the PhD defense, please send an email to promotie.dorisvandersmissen@gmail.com
Mental disorders pose an extremely high burden to society, both in terms of their direct effects on health but also societal welfare losses. This burden is distributed unequally and strongly impacts groups of low socioeconomic status (SES). Also unequal is the access and utilization of mental health services, which should be concentrated among those who most need treatment. This thesis aimed to produce evidence to guide mental health policy in reducing inequalities in mental health care and outcomes.
The objective was achieved by addressing two different knowledge gaps. The first research question, descriptive by nature, aimed to complement the existing knowledge about inequalities in the mental health field, which covers disparities in mental health status and access to mental health care but extremely limited in describing inequalities during mental health treatment and patient outcomes. The second research question focused on identifying mental health related interventions, programs and policies that impact the existing inequalities. To address this question, I have relied on quasi-experimental methods to causally evaluate interventions linked to key policy levers in granting access to mental health support: coverage, eligibility, and availability. I have conducted the evaluations applying an equity lens by measuring differential effects by socioeconomic status or focusing on interventions that impact vulnerable groups.
If you are not able to attend the defense in person, you can access the livestream via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVyFldZExo
Healthy ageing is a global priority as people worldwide are living longer. With longer lifespans, older adults are at increased risk of chronic conditions. Service provision based on disease-specific guidelines can be inappropriate for people with multiple health conditions; care can become duplicative and inefficient due to poor coordination. Person-centred integrated care is seen as a promising approach to delivering care that is proactive, coordinated and centred around people’s needs. In addition, digital health technology has the potential to involve patients better in their care process and could, therefore, support person-centred integrated care.
The research described in this thesis provides insights into the determinants of health outcomes that matter to older adults (Part 1), stakeholder perspectives regarding person-centred integrated care supported by digital health technology (Part 2), and how to design and evaluate appropriate person-centred integrated care (Part 3).
A diverse healthcare workforce is important to increase and equalize access to high quality healthcare for the whole population. There are concerns, however, that diversity amongst health professionals is already harmed in an early stage: during the selection of prospective students. Therefore, this dissertation provides insights into how selection tools, preparatory activities and applicant acceptance can play a role in shaping student diversity in health professions education. In addition, this dissertation offers recommendations to improve the design of selection procedures in order to ensure or even enhance student diversity.
Prof. dr. Andrea Woltman will give her Inaugural lecture entitled “Fostering Flourishing” (Floreren (stimu)leren) in honor of her appointment as Professor Innovation of Health Professions Education on Friday the 27th of September 2024 at 4:00 pm. The lecture will be given in Dutch.
There will be a reception afterwards.
The inaugural lecture can also be viewed via a livestream : https://eur.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f0d05f94-2dd7-4719-8218-b1a40087ac42
De rede is ook te volgen via een livestream.
Link: https://eur.cloud.panopto.e
u/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c11b80b4-9598-4203-bf04-b0a1009b2b25
Vrijdag 26 januari 2024 houdt Judith Rietjens om 15 uur in de aula van de TU Delft haar oratie met de titel: “The Person Formerly Known as Patient”. Dit is de officiële en openbare aanvaarding van haar leerstoel “Design for Public Health” in de afdeling Maatschappelijke Gezondheidszorg van het Erasmus MC, én de faculteit Industrieel Ontwerpen van de TU Delft.
Ze zal reflecteren op het “wicked problem” van de zorg die onvoldoende persoonsgericht is. Ze zal laten zien hoe ontwerpers en public health onderzoekers nieuwe richtingen kunnen aandragen om het tij te keren.
De oratie wordt gevolgd door een interactieve tentoonstelling die bezocht kan worden tijdens de receptie.
Inschrijven kan hier: https://www.aanmelder.nl/rietjens/subscribe
De rede is ook te volgen via een livestream.
Link: https://nmclive.tudelft.nl/Mediasite/Play/4abeb10ba4e84bc2b75f37fa22d4a0471d
picture: Geisje van der Linden.
Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage is a bleed into the subarachnoid space that surrounds the brain caused by the rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. Because aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage affects relatively young patients, it disproportionately contributes to stroke-related loss of (productive) life. The cornerstone of treatment of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage is occlusion of the aneurysm, thereby preventing an aneurysmal rebleed. By and large, there are two approaches to aneurysm occlusion: neurosurgical clip-reconstruction and endovascular coiling. The choice between these approaches depends on multiple factors and is made multidisciplinary on a case-by-case basis.
This dissertation aims to explore and improve such decision-making processes. Firstly, by describing international practice variability of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage treatment and paving the way for conducting comparative effectiveness research on observational data (PART I). Secondly, by enabling individualized outcome prediction to tailor treatment to the individual instead of the group (PART II). Thirdly, by developing models to predict individualized treatment benefit of endovascular coiling versus neurosurgical clip-reconstruction in terms of functional outcome, durability of treatment, and quality-adjusted life expectancy (PART III).