Master project

Master projects may concern any of the elements in PTEE: Pharmaco therapy, - epidemiology and - economy. Also connections to Nivel, Lareb and (hospital) pharmacies exist, allowing for interesting research projects.

For more information on requirements and procedures concerning master projects, please consult the study info for Pharmacy or MPS.
To find a suitable project, please contact the available supervisors below. This works best via email, with a short description of your background and interests.

Eelko Hak:
Prof. Hak's group is involved in real-world data-analysis of drug effects and safety as well as in trends in drug use. His interest is in applying novel designs and analytical strategies to deal with confounding by indication. Topics include drugs in diabetes, pregnancy, ashtma/COPD, infections, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. Most studies are done with the in-house IADB.nl prescription database sometimes in combination with the Lifelines database (PharmLines). Questionnaire studies, focus group interviews or audits are infrequently applied.

Katja Taxis:

Talitha Feenstra:

Master thesis project seeking enthusiastic student

“Value-based healthcare. The case of continuous glucose monitoring. ”

 This project is suitable for a student in Pharmacy or MPS with an interest in health economics as well as qualitative research. Able to speak Dutch. Willing to travel.

In recent years, several new devices have enlarged the options for patients with Diabetes who are dependent on insulin use to monitor their glucose levels. This can have a large impact on patient’s lives, while also affecting the efforts and experiences of informal care providers.

Aim of this project is to contribute to the definition of value in Diabetes care, which is essential to work towards value-base care for persons with Diabetes. The main focus will be on Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM).

In the project, the student will perform qualitative research to identify the building bricks of value in care for T1DM. More concrete, the student will perform a literature review concerning value in Diabetes care/value-based Diabetes care. Based on this, interview guidelines will be designed. Then, semi-structured interviews will be performed in patients, in informal care providers and with other stakeholders (patient representatives, policy makers). Finally, results will be processed and analyzed to arrive at conclusions regarding elements of value.

The study will be part of joint work with the Nederlandse Diabetes Federatie (NDF) and be conducted in the the Pharmaco-Economics Group at PTEE (PharmacoTherapy, -Epidemiology and –Economics).

For further information, please contact Dr TL Feenstra (t.l.feenstra rug.nl; 050 3632697 Tuesday-Friday).

Frank Klont:
Frank Klont is an assistant professor in Personalized Pharmacotherapy working both in the department of PharmacoTherapy, -Epidemiology and –Economics and in the UMCG’s department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology. His position is aimed at the integration of knowledge on the drug profile with a patient’s clinical profile, co-medication, genetic makeup, and biomarker status with the goal to contribute to further personalization of drug treatments. Having a background in pharmacy, clinical chemistry, bioanalysis, omics research, and clinical data analysis, he supervises data-driven projects, for example on antihypertensive, antidiabetic, immunosuppressive, and over-the-counter drug use in various clinical settings. In addition, he supervises laboratory-based projects, for example aimed at developing therapeutic drug profiling workflows to study medication adherence or to study the metabolic fate of drugs in a real-world setting.

Nynke Schuiling-Veninga:
As a senior lecturer, Dr Nynke Schuiling-Veninga is involved in education and research within the fields of pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacotherapy and pharmacy practice research. She supervises bachelor- and master research projects done with the in-house IADB.nl prescription database focusing on the effects and safety of drugs use and trends in the utilization of drugs. Especially the use and safety of drugs during pregnancy and use and safety of psychotropic drugs have her interest. Besides this, many other topics have her interest too like the treatment of neurological disorders (migraine, epilepsy), prescribing of antibiotics and utilization of drugs among children and adolescents.

Liset van Dijk:
Liset van Dijk is professor of Pharmacy Health services research. Her work concentrates on pharmacy practice and policy research. Main research areas include: adherence tot medication, patient-pharmacist communication, the patient perspective on medication use, organisation of primary care, implementation research and e-health solutions to support medication use. In Liset's research line a wide variety of research methods are applied: quantitative (survey, database analyses) and qualitative (interviews, focus groups, video observations) and mixed-method. Liset works together with different organisations and connects students with these organisations. In 2019-2021 students worked together with Nivel, Pharmi, Radboudumc, Health Base and Harteraad. Liset is the coordinator of the Make It consortium that studies implementation of medication adherence interventions. For this project, several master projects will become available the upcoming years.

Eric van Roon:
Prof. van Roon offers possibilities tot conduct your master research project in het hospital setting. In cooperation with PhD students ((hospital) pharmacists, medical specialists) you work on projects that have a very close relation to daily clinical practice in the intramural setting. The research questions are characterized by a high level of direct clinical relevance. The fields of research are very diverse, for example within the field of haemato-oncology, anticoagulation, bariatric pharmacology and hospital psychiatry. Locations are large teaching or peripheral hospitals in the Northern part of The Netherlands. Besides the focus on your research project all hospitals offer the possibility to dive deeper into the intramural care setting. This facilitates the development of your idea whether to pursue a career as hospital pharmacist.

Eugène van Puijenbroek:
Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine-related problem. It is one of the topics addressed by the Pharmacy, PharmacoTherapy, - Epidemiology & -Economics. Group. Prof. Dr van Puijenbroek is endowed professor of pharmacovigilance and head Science and research at Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb. His field of attention is the development of signal detection methodologies by means of collecting and interpreting information about adverse reactions of drugs used in daily practice.

Master thesis projects focus on the following topics:

1. Methodological development is signal detection strategies

2. Study of specific drug safety signals in the post-marketing phase

3. Adverse events associated with drug exposure during pregnancy

Methods apply may vary and entail the analysis the (inter-) national pharmacovigilance database(s), observational studies or surveys. For most studies, affinity with data-analysis and epidemiology, basic knowledge of medical terminology is needed.

Frank Jansman: