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Prof. Robert Verheij, PhD
Coordinator research program Learning Health System; endowed professor 'Transparency in healthcare from a patient perspective', Tranzo, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

Research

Robert Verheij is an internationally recognised and innovative expert in health services research and the use of electronic health records and administrative data, including their interoperability, data quality and privacy protection. How we can use and re-use health data to improve the health care process and the health care system? This has been Robert’s main focus for the last two decades, bringing together the worlds of IT, health care providers, researchers and health policy.

He was one of the initiators and for many years also project leader of Nivel Primary Care Database, bringing together large amounts of electronic health records based data from GPs, GP out of hours services, physiotherapists and other allied health care providers. Besides numerous national research projects, Robert has also been involved in EU projects like the APRES project on antibiotic prescribing, the TRANSFoRm and the eHID project on research infrastructures based on electronic health records and a number of disease-oriented studies.

Orignally trained as a human geographer, he keeps an interest in spatial variations in health and healthcare.

Publications

CV

Career
2019 - present: edowed professot 'Transparency in healthcare from a patient perspective', Tranzo, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
2017 - present: Program coordinator Learning Health System, Nivel, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research. Focus on innovative research projects with (re)use of routinely recorded health data.
2002 - 2017: Program leader Nivel Primary Care Database (and its predecessors). Focus on creation, management, exploitation of one of Europe’s largest electronic health records based research infrastructures.
1999 – 2002: Health services researcher, Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), department of public health forecast, focus on geography of health and health care; public health and healthcare utilisation.
1989 – 1999: Health services researcher Nivel, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research. Focus on primary care after hospital discharge; home care and community nursing; geography of health and healthcare.
Education
1999: PhD Social sciences Utrecht University. Thesis: "Urban-rural variations in health care" Promotor prof. dr. PP Groenewegen, and prof. dr. P.P.P. Huigen. Co-promotor D.H. de Bakker, PhD
1993 – 1994: Postdoctoral program Social Science Theory and Methodology at ICS (Netherlands Inter-University Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology)
1982 – 1988: Amsterdam University, human geography. Doctoral in 1988. Specializations: political geography, European politics, geography of developing countries
1975 – 1982: Marnix Gymnasium, Rotterdam
Memberships/external committees
- Member of the jury for proposals for large scale research infrastructures for the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Investissements d’Avenir (2010, 2012, 2013, 2016)
- Member of the jury for proposals for research infrastructure for the Belgian Science Policy Office (2007, 2013, 2014)
- Member of the Dutch general practitioners research databases working group. Since 2002.-
- Member of jury of the The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development for proposals for health registries. Since 2014.
- Member of the Community of data experts of the Dutch Ministry of Health. Since 2014.
- Member interuniversity working group for general practitioner research networks. Since 2015.
- Member editorial board Learning health systems journal (published by Wiley). Since 2016.
- Member of supervisory board REOS (regional support organisation for primary care), Leiden. Since 2015.