Staff members with discipline Health Policy & Services
Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.




He obtained his PharmD and PhD at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), where his thesis focused on the cost-effectiveness of adherence enhancing interventions in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). After his PhD research, he completed fellowships at the University of Colorado (USA), Monash University (Australia) and the Hospital Universitario Son Espases (Spain).
He is (co)author of >150 scientific publications (H-index: 37), supervisor of 10 PhD students and received several research prices & grants (totalling>€6 million). He is Chair of the European Respiratory Society CRC on digital respiratory health "CONNECT", Chair of the Dutch respiratory pharmacists group (KNMP SIG Long), former Boardmember of the Dutch young Medicines Evaluation Board (Jong CBG), ZonMW-GGG committee member, Scientific lead of the Lung Alliance Netherlands (LAN) National Medication Adherence Program, expert research faculty at the IPCRG & EAACI, Editorial Board member of various peer-reviewed journals and has an extensive international network (e.g. ERS, IPCRG, EAACI, ISPE, REG, ESPACOMP, ISPOR).
Having interest and wide experience in both medication adherence and health economic methods, his mission is to find novel, cost-effective ways to make better, personalized use of our respiratory medications in order to maximize both patients’ and societal benefits.
Through multidisciplinary research, education and care support, he aims to provide means to accelerate implementation of drug-device technologies (digital inhalers, electronic pill bottles & blisters and smart spacers) and practical adherence monitoring & management tools (e.g. the TAI Toolkit) in daily clinical practice, to ultimately optimize patient, economic and societal outcomes.
Specialties:
- Methods & application: medication adherence, compliance, persistence, e-health, smart inhalers, bottles and spacers, digital adherence technology, (pharmaco) epidemiology, real-world drug outcomes, pharmacoeconomics, health economics, burden of disease, budget impact, health technology assessment, cost-effectiveness.
- Disease focus areas: Asthma / COPD / TB / CF/ Lung cancer




















Methods
*Applied microeconomics
*Impact Evaluation
*Social network analysis
*Cost-effectiveness analysis
Topics
*Non-communicable diseases
*Health effects of climate change
*Insurance
*Network and peer effects






























Workplace Learning & Organizational Learning
Change & Implementation
Professional development
Communities of practice
Medical education




Biological and clinical studies are combined with the construction and testing of innovative educational tools for patients and professionals [serious games & apps]. All studies have the focus on physical resilience and on prevention from or recovery of [avoidable] cognitive and functional decline after an acute event.
Fundamental studies to elaborate on the neuroinflammatory process in the brain at cellular and structural level go hand in hand with clinical studies defining the clinical phenotype of neuroinflammation causing the clinical symptoms of delirium and leading to functional decline and accelerated cognitive decline and dementia.
To improve patient trajectories also qualitative and quantitative studies in hospitalized elderly patients are conducted. These studies try, by focussing on patient reported experience measures {socalled PREMs], to create sound scientific evidence for innovative ways to improve the organisation of care for the most vulnerable elderly patients with acute care needs. All with a focus on supporting these patients in regaining their cognitive and physical function and to enable them to live as long as possible in their own home, or by respecting their health choices and by offering patient centred care and support in the deciosion making process.
De Rooij and her team strongly believe in participatory action research and multidisciplinary collaboration and therefore they closely collaborate with elderly patients, their relatives and other health care professionals. All their research is designed to have an immediate societal impact and directs towards quality improvement and not solely on gaining scientific impact. Examples are the Vitality Navigator, The Transitional Care Bridge and the Delirium Experience. These innovative health care solutions aim at supporting healthy ageing from a patient’s perspective and healthy ageing from the perspective of a high risk population.
Currently de Rooij is preparing together with other colleagues the opening of the Alzheimer Center Groningen, the newest Alzheimer Center in the Netherlands that is not only focussing on diagnosis and therapy but also on improving the patients' care trajectory including his wellbeing after being diagnosied with dementia, and on the prevention of dementia in off-spring of patients with dementia.
Since 2006 over 20 PhD’s have been defending their thesis based upon this research theme’s and more than 200 articles have been published. Several applications and serious games have been designed to support the impact of research on society. See also www.deliriumexperience.nl, www.seniorlines.nl, www.effectieveouderenzorg.nl, www.hospitalathome.nl, www.geriatriegroningen.nl, see also evaluations of the research on www.vmszorg.nl, www.beteroud.nl.
Follow the social media and Twitter for more news on healthy ageing from @sophiaderooij




Environmental Policy
Well-being
Data analysis








She is co-founder of the Groningen Centre for Health Law (former Global Health Law Groningen), which hosts around fifteen researchers focusing on various dimensions of health and human rights. She has published widely in legal, public health and multidisciplinary journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Harvard Health and Human Rights, the BMJ, and Tobacco Control, and she participates in several international and domestic bodies (see below). Toebes has conducted research in the field of tobacco control since 2016, with a particular emphasis on developing a human rights approach. She frequently acts as a consultant to international bodies, including the WHO and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. In 2022, Brigit was awarded the Legal Specialist Award by the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL). Key publications include Health and Human Rights (2022, 2e ed), Human Rights and Tobacco Control (open access), and Research Handbook on Global Health Law (2018). Contact: please send me an email.


Toegepast onderzoek in het zorg- en sociale domein
Medische sociologie
Onderzoek met mixed methods









