Research team
Expertise
My expertise as a general practitioner and researcher lies at the intersection of chronic care, integrated care, and implementation research, with heart failure as a key area of application. Heart failure predominantly affects older patients with multimorbidity and therefore particularly requires a multidisciplinary and integrated approach across care settings. My research focuses on how evidence-based heart failure care can be sustainably implemented and scaled up within the Belgian healthcare system, with particular attention to the role of primary care and collaboration between primary and secondary care. Since completing my PhD, I have combined further knowledge generation in heart failure care with the translation and implementation of research findings into clinical practice. I am a co-founder of HeartsConnect, the Heart Failure Learning Network, in which healthcare professionals, researchers, and patients collaborate to advance integrated heart failure care. Within this network, we place a strong emphasis on education and capacity building among primary care professionals, interprofessional collaboration, and strengthening the connection between primary and secondary care. This has resulted, among other initiatives, in training programmes for nurses working in general practice and community nurses, educational materials for patients and healthcare professionals, and the development of a multidisciplinary heart failure care pathway in collaboration with the Belgian Working Group on Heart Failure. I am also actively involved in the development and implementation of evidence-based recommendations for primary care. As a guideline coordinator at WOREL, I contributed to the partial revision and ongoing updating of the chronic heart failure guideline through a Living Guideline process. My research and implementation activities include the development of multidisciplinary pharmacotherapy review for heart failure, the submission of a reimbursement dossier for the use of NT-proBNP in primary care, and the development and evaluation of strategies to improve the quality of heart failure care in primary care. Throughout my professional career, I have developed a particular interest in task delegation and interprofessional collaboration in general practice, with a specific focus on the role of nurses working in general practice (VIHP). This theme runs through my clinical, research, and teaching activities. I teach in the core VIHP training programme as well as in continuing education programmes for VIHPs, and I also work closely with a VIHP in my own general practice. My research and clinical expertise are also reflected in my teaching responsibilities. As module coordinator for General Practice 2 – Geriatrics, I have a particular focus on chronic and palliative care. I also teach on persistent physical symptoms (PPS). This patient population fits within my broader interest in complex chronic care. Patients with persistent physical symptoms experience long-term symptoms that can have a substantial impact on their daily functioning and quality of life. At the same time, the evidence base for diagnosis and treatment remains limited, leaving considerable scope for improving care. I aim to contribute to this by strengthening the communication skills of current and future physicians and promoting a biopsychosocial approach to patients with persistent physical symptoms.