prof. dr. E. (Erik) Buskens

Erik Buskens (1962), MD, PhD, graduated from Erasmus University Rotterdam medical school in 1987, after serving as lieutenant physician in the Royal Dutch Army (1988/1989) and as resident internal medicine in Breda the Netherlands (1989), subsequently was enrolled in a PhD programme at Sophia Children’s Hospital and Erasmus University Rotterdam, which was successfully completed in 1994. By that time he had been appointed assistant and later associate professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment (MTA) at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht. In 1999 he spent a brief period as visiting fellow at The Health Outcomes Research Group, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA. Since 2006 Buskens holds the chair of MTA at the Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, and, additionally, from 2009 through 2015 was Program Director Healthy Ageing, the hospital’s central theme for research, education and care. His factual research focuses on modelling and (early) evaluation and adoption of innovations in health care. As director of  Health Ageing he instigated and helped sets up new and cross-faculty research and educational programs, development of innovative health care concepts, and evaluation thereof. Buskens (co)supervised many PhD students, is (co-)author of well over 200 papers (H-index google scholar 67), is past president of the board (2005 – 2010) of the Dutch Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care (NVTAG), and member of (inter-)national committees and bodies on MTA. Notably, he was member of the Advisory Board to the Minister of Health on Quality of Care (RegieRaad), and until 2016 permanent member, and chair of two temporary committees, i.e., long-term care and nursing home care, instigated by the secretary of state for health, of the Advisory Board on Quality, National Health Care Institute, the Netherlands.

Other advisory bodies and functions among others comprise: Chair Working Group Health and Participation, Joint Programming Initiative Active and Healthy Ageing, European Union and chair Scientific Advisory Board Joint Programming Initiative Active and Healthy Ageing, European Union, Member committee Introduction Innovative Technology, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Member committee Unexpected Diagnostic Findings, Health Council, the Netherlands, co-chair inter-faculty (faculty of Economics and Business Economics and UMCG) collaborative consortium Healthwise, and as of 2016 Member Supervisory Board Accare Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.