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Associate Professor
dpt. of Rehabilitation Medicine, AmsterdamUMC
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
I am an Associate Professor in neurorehabilitation at the Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc (dpt. Rehabilitation Medicine, Unit Neurorehabilitation). My research over the years has focused on the coordination of locomotion and standing balance as well as rehabilitation and recovery of motor and non-motor function in movement disorders, specifically in Parkinson’s Disease (PD), stroke, MS and the elderly. After my PhD studies, I returned to the Netherlands to work on the RESCUE project, an EU funded international collaboration with Prof. Dr. G. Kwakkel. I have gained experience in conducting multicentre trials, for example the mentioned European project RESCUE and was local VUmc coordinator and steering group member in the multicenter EXPLICIT-stroke trial, funded by ZonMw (grant No. 89000001). Explicit-stroke was a 5 year multicenter collaboration investigating Brain Plasticity in relation to functional recovery of the upper limb after a first-ever ischemic stroke. I was also VUmc coordinator in the 4DEEG project, based on an advanced grant financed by the European Research Council (ERC) that was awarded to Prof. dr. Ir. Frans van der Helm of the TUDelft and Prof. dr. Gert Kwakkel. Further I am project coordinator in a MOVE-age Erasmus Mundus project on the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation in combination with constraint induced movement therapy in patients with stroke. In 2013 I received a research fellowship from the Hersenstichting to study brainstimulation and balance training in stroke patients. I was co-promotor in 10 completed PhD projects (of dec 2021). Within current projects I act as project coordinator and co-promotor /supervisor of 8 PhD students who’s projects are aimed at understanding early prognosis and longitudinal change in functional recovery after stroke, development of rehabilitation technology, e-health and selfmanagement and exercise and ambulatory monitoring of physical activity in patients with stroke, Parkinson’s disease and MS.
A recent collaboration was started with Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia) involving two parallel randomized clinical trials in stroke patients. This project was spawn from two ZonMW grant (Care4Stroke (150k) and Care4Brain (600k)) on caregiver mediated exercises after non-acquired brain-injury of which I am PI and co-PI, respectively. Currently these projects are tested in a blended care program called Armed4Stroke investigating caregiver mediated exercises with telerehabilitation support. I am co-PI in sub projects of a 4 million euro research program NeuroCIMT (2015). Since then I have acquired grants from Zonmw (2016, 30k, 2018, 240k), EU (2015/2017, 100k/300k), Amsterdam Movement Sciences (2017, 60k, 2018 25k, 2020 50k), Hersenstichting (2018, 300k, 2020, 400k). Recently, another focus is on interdisciplinary care for PD patients with wearing-off related stress (Beware project) and effects of high intensity interval training on mood and neuroplasticity biomarkers in PD and MS.
My technical skills involve posturography, ambulatory monitoring, motion-analysis, non-invasive transcranial, brain stimulation (tDCS), telerehabilitation, blood biomarkers, and brain-imaging research on functional connectivity. Expertise in posturography was obtained during my PhD project on the relationship between axial rigidity and balance in PD, extending into two grants awarded to me I obtained from the International Parkinson Fonds to study brain activation, movement control and balance therapy in PD and a Hersenstichting Fellowship on tDCS and Virtual Reality training to improve balance control in stroke patients. Current national collaborations exist with the VUmc Depts. of Medical Physics (Dr. J. de Munck), Anatomy & Neurosciences (Dr. W. vd Berg), Psychiatry (Prof. O. van den Heuvel), Neurology (Prof. H. Berendse, Prof. R. de Bie) the VU with Prof. P. Beek and Prof. in neural dynamics A. Daffertshofer, TU Delft with Prof. F. vd Helm, Erasmus MC with Dr. H. Bussmann and Prof. R. Selles, Radboud UMC with Prof. A. Geurts, UMCU with Prof. A. Visser-Meilly, and TU Twente with Prof. P. Veltink . International colloborations exist with Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Switzerland (Dr. T Vanbellingen) and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Carolinas Medical Center, United States (Dr. M. Hirsch).
These projects fit with my workplan and focus on rehabilitation technology, ambulatory monitoring, e-health, telerehabilitation, exercise and neuroplasticity. I also am on the organizing committee of the bi-annual congress on Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, a board member of the Dutch Society for Neurorehabilitation and Program co-Director in the Amsterdam Movement Sciences research institute.
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
4:45 PM – 6:00 PM
Thursday, November 10, 2022
1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Friday, November 11, 2022
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
