NL
About
We are engaged in scientific research and teaching on methods for (behavior change for) implementation of prevention, valuable care innovations or de-implementation of non-valuable care.
Contact
Scope and area of work
Insights about valuable preventive care, diagnostics, treatment and aftercare usually do not automatically find their way into daily practice: "you have to do something or leave something!". As a result, often unconsciously, valuable care is withheld from patients. On the other hand, care that is not valuable is actually given to patients.
In addition, patients regularly indicate that current care does not sufficiently match their personal needs, preferences and values, nor the changing role of the patient as a partner. Moreover, they identify deficiencies in coordination and cooperation among the many health care providers involved across departmental and organizational boundaries.
There are also wide variations in the quality of care provided between health care providers, departments and organizations. This variation is too great to be explained solely by patient factors. Thus, publishing or otherwise providing information about appropriate or inappropriate care does not automatically lead to the provision of valuable care in daily practice.
Chairs/RGL's
- Quality of care for infectious diseases, Marlies Hulscher
- View Radboudumc profile page and view research group (link will follow)
- Person-centered oncology chain and network care, Rosella Hermens
- View Radboudumc profile page and view research group (link will follow)
- Appropriate care, Tijn Kool
- View Radboudumc profile page and view research group (link will follow)
- Behavioral medicine and health psychology, Marijn de Bruin
- View Radboudumc profile page and view research group (link will follow)
Projects
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We research patient and healthcare professional perspectives regarding sustainability in treatment options and implementation.
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Behavioral science research on 'Integrated Behavioural Care Models' for the integration of preventive behavioral interventions (lifestyle, self-management) in Dutch care.
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The World Health Organization labels "vaccine hesitancy" as a top-10 health threat. In this study, we deepen the understanding of the concept of "vaccine hesitancy," measure its occurrence, and build a decision aid for parents facing a decision about childhood vaccinations.
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Despite recommendations in national and international oncology guidelines, not every woman with cancer of childbearing age is informed of her risk of infertility before the start of the cancer treatment and referred for additional counseling by a gynecologist for this purpose. If referred, there is often no shared decision-making around the choice of fertility treatment or not.
The lack of this care is related to an increase in decisional conflict, an increase in decisional regret and a decreased quality of life after cancer. The goal of this nationwide implementation project is to optimize the provision of information around cancer and childbearing, referral to fertility counseling, fertility counseling itself, and shared decision-making for young women with cancer and childbearing with the "Cancer & Childbearing" decision aid.
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In all our research, we try to involve (future) patients as early as possible, preferably already during the development of the research. In doing so, we not only include the highly educated (future) patients, but we pay close attention to hard-to-reach groups.
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We conduct research on implementation of appropriate care and de-implementation of inappropriate care. We do this by working with health care providers and patients to thoroughly define strategies and help them implement them. Reasons for this may be getting more patients with stable angina to use cardiac rehabilitation or getting patients with gastrointestinal problems to take fewer antacids. We focus specifically on structural change and spreading the effects to other regions.
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Several studies show that it matters where you live in terms of the care you receive. We call this phenomenon practice variation. Some of this variation is undesirable. Knowledge about regional differences in practice variation is still limited, both among patients, health care providers and health insurers. By mapping practice variation, we can identify inappropriate care. Signaling is the first step in developing interventions that lead to improved quality and affordability of care.
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We conduct research on supporting healthy lifestyles and self-management in the context of public and curative health care. Indeed, there is much knowledge on how to effectively support healthy behaviors, but the impact of that knowledge on practice is still too limited. Within the prevention theme, we focus on overcoming 3 relevant barriers via:
1. Generating more robust evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of behavioral health interventions.
2. Developing and applying innovative methods for evidence synthesis to better capture the effects of behavioral interventions.
3. Developing insights and methods to better integrate behavioral science into health policy and health care.
Initial education
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In these blocks, students are introduced to evidence-based practice and evidence-based guidelines. In the latter block, for example, students revise an existing guideline by searching for new evidence and drafting new recommendations .
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Healthcare Improvement Science (HcIS) examines the context, facilitators and barriers within which improvements in care around the patient can be achieved, as well as existing and new interventions to improve the quality of care.
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Research minor on how to implement healthcare innovations in the system.
More information can be found here. -
Studio in which students in the honours programme gain insight into practice variation and appropriate care over 10 weeks and where they reflect and provide solutions from their own study background.
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As part of the minor on breast cancer research, 2 half-day sessions focus on involving patients in research.
Post-initial education
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This course teaches 20 researchers (PhD students and postdocs) how to set up and conduct (de-)implementation research. The language of instruction is Dutch. The course was rated 8.4 in 2024.
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This course focuses on the design of clinical scientific research. Topics covered include formulating a question statement, choosing an appropriate research design, selecting the study population, types of bias and causality.
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Collaborations
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Social science consortium on pandemic preparedness led from IQ Health.
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Together, we explore whether digital care is appropriate and how to make current digital support appropriate.
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In this network, healthcare providers and researchers from more than 30 countries share their experiences, data and challenges to de-implementing non-matching care.
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Consultancy/services
If you are interested in consultations or services from our R&E group, please fill out our application form.
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We offer consultation (research, education and research methodology) in implementation and de-implementation research.
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We offer consultation in statistics (power calculations and analyses) in implementation and de-implementation research.
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Rosella Hermens Professor of person-centered oncology chain and network care
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Tijn Kool Professor of appropriate care
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