Centre of Expertise Health innovation
Social and technological innovations for a vital and resilient environmentWe are seeing a growing focus on providing care closer to home, taking ownership, small-scale care and flexible networks. Technology is a mainstay in our transition to a more sustainable positive health and even creates more opportunities. The Health Innovation Centre of Expertise uses technological innovations to promote health and create the conditions for a healthy life cycle.
The Health Innovation Centre of Expertise engages the residents in the metropolitan region of Rotterdam The Hague (MRDH) in resolving health issues that will affect them in life and wants people to experience an improved positive health. This includes preserving vitality, rehabilitating functions, supporting people in their daily activities and participating in social life. We connect the knowledge and expertise from research, education and practice and invest especially in a ‘Healthy Lifestyle’, ‘Care and Rehabilitation’ and a ‘Healthy environment’.
As a Centre of Expertise we believe there is added value in addressing complex health issues from multiple perspectives. Several Health Innovation research groups are working together with government and private partners in the labs at THUAS to resolve practice-based cases. How about the fitness centre or hospital room of the future, or the use of robots? We tell a more comprehensive and complete story about Health Innovation and our work is instantly recognisable and identifiable to the outside world.
Projects
Towards Responsible Rebellion: governance and participation in collective housing for seniors
Living labs in The Hague Sports District
The Impact of Sport research group investigates the unifying power of sport in the Escamp district of The Hague, so-called ‘The Hague Sports District’. Researchers work with residents, students, local sports organisations and businesses in living labs, a research hub at the heart of the community, where the creative energy of all parties can be unleashed in a casual atmosphere. Living labs enable experimentation with innovative sports offerings and new forms of (sports) organisation and collaborations in a ‘real life setting’. The group is realising four living labs in Escamp, starting in the Morgenstond neighbourhood, on and around the fields of HKV Eibernest.
Blogs
Blogs of a researcher: reading, reading and more reading
In my first blog I described how I am researching the problem of the neighbourhood sports coach. I wanted to know more about the evaluation and accountability of the social impact of interventions. I worked on this in recent weeks ...
Read moreBlogs of a researcher
Conducting the research. Most students find it ‘boring. And difficult’. In this monthly blog I will share with you my experiences as a researcher. What challenges I encounter and how I resolve these issues. I will show you that res...
Read moreTeam
dr. Sanne de Vries
Director Centre of Expertise Health Innovation
dr. Bregje Thomassen
Programme Coordinator
Natalie Janse
Management assistant
dr. Frank van Eekeren
Professor Impact of Sport
dr hab. ir. Joost van Hoof Eur Ing
Professor Oncological Care
dr. Jorit Meesters
dr. Joost van der Sijp MD
Professor Oncological Care
dr. Lampros Stergioulas
Professor Data Science
dr. ir. Erwin de Vlugt
Professor Technology for Health
Melle van Dilgt
Birk Frankvoort
Mara van der Schaaf
Wendy Scholtes-Bos
Director Centre of Expertise Health Innovation
dr. Sanne de Vries
Sanne graduated with a degree in Human Movement Sciences and Epidemiology from the VU University Amsterdam. From 2000 to 2013, she worked as a researcher and project leader at TNO. Sanne earned her PhD from the VU University Amsterdam in 2009 in Social Medicine with a thesis entitled 'Activity-friendly neighbourhoods for children'. Sanne has been involved in more than 75 research projects involving young people, movement and health and has published more than 200 scientific reports. Her primary focus is on the role of the physical environment in movement behaviour, physical education and ‘nudging’, as well as the assessment of physical activity in young people.
06 - 46 87 68 52s.i.devries@hhs.nl
Programme Coordinator
dr. Bregje Thomassen
Management assistant
Natalie Janse
Professor Impact of Sport
dr. Frank van Eekeren
As a management and organisation research scientist, Frank van Eekeren has spent over 20 years investigating the social significance of sport in relation with the organisation of sport. In his PhD dissertation De Waardenvolle Club (the valuable club), he describes an ideal sports organisation that creates public value in addition to value creation in the nexus of sport and business. He conducts research in and around the field of sports, both locally and internationally, and publishes in journals, sports publications and blogs. Frank is also employed as Associate Professor at Utrecht University School of Governance.
+31 (0)6 - 48 07 21 43f.j.a.vaneekeren@hhs.nl
Professor Oncological Care
dr hab. ir. Joost van Hoof Eur Ing
Joost van Hoof (1980) attained his MSc degree at Eindhoven University of Technology (Department of Architecture, Building and Physics). He also studied Environmental Engineering at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in Prague. Prof van Hoof attained his doctoral degree from Eindhoven University of Technology (in cooperation with Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and the Academy of Healthcare Utrecht) with a dissertation on ageing-in-place for people with dementia in 2010. From 2011 to 2018 he was affiliated with the Centre for Healthcare & Technology of Fontys University of Applied Sciences, and served as the project leader of the Nursing Home of the Future Programme. From 2012 to 2013, Prof van Hoof worked with the ISSO – the Dutch Building Services Research Institute in Rotterdam in the field of healthy building services. Apart from several board memberships in the domain of older people, technology and housing, Prof van Hoof collaborates and is affiliated with several universities abroad. Key to his work is a focus on the abilities of older people, not their disabilities, even when participations seems difficult.
j.vanhoof@hhs.nldr. Jorit Meesters
Professor Oncological Care
dr. Joost van der Sijp MD
Joost has been working as a surgeon since 1993. He did his residency at St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein and the University Medical Centre Utrecht and his doctoral research was conducted over the course of a year at St. Mark’s Hospital in London. After completing his residency, he worked at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Daniël den Hoed Clinic in Rotterdam and the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He has been an oncological surgeon at the Haaglanden Medisch Centrum since 2005. His interest and expertise lie primarily in breast cancer and oncological surgery of the gastrointestinal tract. Joost holds several administrative positions both within and outside of the hospital and is a member of various advisory panels related to oncological care.
+31 (0)6 - 53 68 58 50j.r.m.vandersijp@hhs.nl
Professor Data Science
dr. Lampros Stergioulas
Lampros Stergioulas is also active for the European Commission as an expert in the field of artificial intelligence, data science and research ethics. In various programmes sponsored by the European Union and EU member states, he acts as an expert evaluator.
Lampros studied informatics and physics and received a Masters’ and a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Liverpool (UK).
He has published more than 200 scientific publications and supervised and evaluated several PhD theses in the field of data science, computer science, health informatics, data-driven social innovation, modelling and simulation and intelligent systems.
He was principal researcher in more than 30 EU projects and coordinator of 4 EU research projects in which he cooperated with public organizations such as the European Center for Disease Prevention (ECDC), the European Medicine Agency (EMA), the European Commission, the National Health Service (UK) as well as national and regional authorities within Europe.
Lampros’s research interests span the areas of applied AI, data science and analytics, health informatics, data-driven management and innovation, system modelling and simulation, as well as data ethics. Through this he endeavors to achieve real-world impact in the areas of healthcare, wellbeing and sustainability.
Professor Technology for Health
dr. ir. Erwin de Vlugt
Erwin studied Mechanical Engineering at the TU Delft, where he then worked for twelve years as a researcher and professor of Biomechanics and Biorobotics. He has also worked in the Rehabilitation Medicine unit at the Leiden University Medical Centre. Erwin earned his PhD with a thesis on human-machine interaction and a study of the role played by proprioception (human movement sensors) during different movement tasks. A passion for robotics and the resemblance to the human musculoskeletal system prompted him to develop devices and products based on the perspective of human-machine interaction. He was appointed head of the Technology for Health research group at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in September 2015.
+31 (0)6-273 79154e.devlugt@hhs.nl