Name "Responsible (Organisation)" "Activity (Organisation)" "Affiliation (Researcher)" "Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences" "Piet HoebekeEric MortierJean PannierGuy Vanderstraeten" "The faculty is characterized by a wide range of courses in medicine and health sciences and related research activities. The research at the faculty is very diverse, from fundamental (bio) medical research to translational and clinical scientific research. The faculty profiles itself strongly in the field of research and aims at a high scientific and / or social impact. Valorisation through high-quality translational and clinical research is therefore an important core task of our faculty. We also raise our research to a higher level through an open culture of collaboration and sharing knowledge within a dynamic and efficient research environment. Here, proactive recruitment of research funding is crucial for the continued existence of the research. Talent is recognized and can develop into excellent researchers who remain ambitious and motivated. Education and research are closely linked with the formation of critical Evidence Based scientists. A focused communication and high visibility of the research facilitates interaction and cohesion between all stakeholders. Within this vision, the faculty and UZ Gent are unmistakable partners." "Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care" "We are integrated in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and support the contributions of the faculty to The Training in Health Equity Network (THENet).The Department participates at different levels in key advisory boards on public health, primary health care and health policy. The Department hosts the International Centre for Primary Health Care and Family Medicine - Ghent University, a WHO Collaborating Centre on PHC, and cooperate with The Network: Towards Unity for Health.We are a premium member of the European Forum for Primary Care." "Department of Public Health and Primary Care" "Pascal Borry" "The Department of Public Health and Primary Care is a multidisciplinary department with a focus on community health, best practice and health policy. The department aims at supplying health care professionals and institutions with the insights, concepts and techniques that will enable them to respond optimally to the health needs and expectations of patient and society. The department endorses the international research and policy priority of ‘Living well with chronic illness’ by building on existing, productive research programs among various disciplines.The Department consists of 9 research units: Environment and Health; Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery; Academic centre for General Practise; Leuven Biostatistics and statistical Bioinformatics Centre; Interfaculty Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law; Emergency Medicine; Biomedical Quality Assurance Research Unit; Epidemiology Research Group; Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy;" "Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences" "The Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences wants to train academics who build on the future healthcare. In education, the emphasis is therefore on knowledge and ability, on knowledge and skills. The Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences chooses high-quality fundamental and applied research in a limited number of selected core domains, and believes in the added value of multidisciplinarity. Through active cooperation with the local health sector and through maximum support for projects in the (bio)medical sciences, the faculty wishes to make an active contribution to the social and economic development of the region." "Family Medicine and Chronic Care" "Integrated health care delivery: Integrated care has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as: ""The management and delivery of health services such as that people receive a continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, disease management, rehabilitation and palliative care services, through the different levels and sites of care within the health system, and according to their bio-psycho and social needs throughout the life course"" (WHO, 2012). Integrated care research priorities: * (cost) effectiveness of integrated care programmes for patients with (multiple) chronic care conditions * What is the (cost) effectiveness of integrated care programmes for patients with multi-morbidity on clinical and patient reported outcomes of care? * (cost) effectiveness of multifaceted intervention strategies (programmes) for the detection, diagnosis and management of chronic diseases and multi-morbidity, targeting clinical inertia in physicians. * How (cost) effective are family physicians in the detection, diagnosis and management of patients with multimorbidity? * What is the (cost) effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams that target clinical inertia in family physicians? * (cost) effectiveness of 'transmural care' (from hospital to home care, and vice versa) for patients with multi-morbidity. * What is the (cost) effectiveness of a transmural care programme for patients with multi-morbidity on clinical and patient reported health outcomes? * What are the factors that hinder/facilitate the implementation of integrated care for patient with multimorbidity at the structure, process and outcome level of care? * What bio-psycho-social empowerment strategies can be applied to patients with multi-morbidity and their families to improve adherence with the therapeutic regimen? * Development of a conceptual framework on quality indicators for integrated healthcare delivery at the structure, process and outcome level of care for patients with multi-morbidity. * What are quality indicators for integrated health for patients with multimorbidity at the structure, process and outcome level of care? * Development of a conceptual framework on multi-morbidity including a complexity analysis at the level of the patient, caregiver and health system. * What determines case, care, quality assessment and health systems complexity for patients with multi-morbidity? Other research topics: * Health services accessibility for socio-economically disadvantaged groups * Sexual behaviour and dysfunctions in gay men" "Epidemiology and social medicine (ESOC)" "The work of ESOC encompasses research, academic teaching and clinical practice in the following topics: - Social Medecine - Epidemiology and medical statistics - Medical sociology and Health policy - Public health - University scientific institute for drug problems" "Health Systems and Health Policy Research Group" "ObjectivesThe Health Systems & Health Policy Group aims at making health systems more people-centered, integrated, accountable, equitable and resilient. Through our research, educational and service delivery activities, we aim at improving health policies and systems so that the right to health and Universal Health Coverage is guaranteed to all people.We contribute to policies, programmes and local health systems that lead to responsive, equitable and high-quality care. In all our work, we consider social, political and cultural determinants of health and their effects on vulnerable groups, as well as the planetary boundaries.Our work is inspired by the values of Primary Health Care (Declaration of Alma Ata and Astana). In practice, we create strong synergies between our research, education and capacity strengthening activities, co-producing, synthesizing and disseminating knowledge on people-centered health systems, policies and programmes to an audience beyond academics.We adopt a systems approach that focuses on the interfaces between policies, programmes, services, people, communities and the environment. Our current focus is on the organization of local (district) health systems, national and global health (workforce) policy formulation and implementation, universal health coverage and equity, governance and accountability, health in fragile settings and research methodology for complex problems. Cross cutting these themes are the focal areas of eco-health (including urban health and climate change), mental health and vulnerable groups/communities. Decolonization and coloniality are another cross-cutting concerns.Our group consists of the Complexity and Health Unit, Health Policy Unit and the Equity and Health Unit. These multi-disciplinary units bring together talent from all over the world and from disciplines ranging from political science, sociology, anthropology and management to medicine, nursing and public health.Our methodological expertise centres around (policy) implementation science, political-economy analysis, participatory action research, complexity and theory-driven evaluation (including realist evaluation). We apply this for example in studies of policy implementation (Results4TB, Scuby), quality of care interventions (Alert), equity (Theta project, India), urban health governance (CREDO programme, RDC), health system strengthening (HSTP, India, AR & HSS, Mauretania - watch video) and global health diplomacy. We use the same approach on infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, a case par excellence where complex systems thinking is a must, and priority essential services, including services for maternal, neonatal and child health, HIV/AIDS, TB, diabetes and other NCDs to investigate how health systems can contribute to their management.Current research objectivesTo develop and test complex-sensitive models for governance and accountability at local, national and global levelTo assess the formulation, implementation and scaling up of policies and programmes for UHC, health system strengthening and disease controlTo assess (strategies to improve) health system resilience in fragile settings, complex emergencies and urban settingsTo develop better evidence on how quality of care can be improved in low-resource settingsTo identify and test effective national and local (urban) health system models that include an eco-health perspectiveTo develop research methodologies for complexity in health, including the further development of realist evaluationTeachingTeaching is an important part of our portfolio. We are organizing and teaching the following modules:Introduction to International Health (Tropical Medicine and International Health postgraduate certificate course, ITM): Fundamentals of Public Health.MSc Public Health, ITM Health Systems and Health Policy (5 weeks) and Health problems and programmes (5 weeks)Health Policy and Systems Research Methodology (3 weeks)Health Policy and Governance (3 weeks)Health Economics & Financing for UHC (3 weeks)Social Protection in Health for Universal Health Coverage (3 weeks)Globalisation & Health (3 weeks)Health Systems Performance Analysis (3 weeks)Health Systems Strengthening (3 weeks)Pharmaceutical policies in health systems (3 weeks)PhD studies: On average, 14 PhD students are supervised by our staff at any point in time.Our staff teaches abroad, for instance at Sciences Po (Paris), Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (Rennes), Maastricht University, Fordham University (New York) and at EMRO.Capacity developmentWe are actively involved in capacity development programmes and service delivery. Within the Framework Agreement programme, we support our partners in Cambodia, Bénin, Guinée, DR Congo and South Africa. We currently also support the AI-PASS project in Mauretania.We have close and longstanding ties with a number of partners, including the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru (India), the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie CERRHUD (Benin), CNFRSR Maferinyah (Guinée), the African Centre of Excellence for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases (CEA-PCMT) (Guinée), the National Institute of Public Health (Cambodia), the Makerere School of Public Health (Uganda), the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), the School of Public Health, Lubumbashi, the CCSC Kinshasa, and the National Health Security Office, Ministry of Health (Thailand).We publish the weekly International Health Policies newsletter, and founded and support the Emerging Voices for Global Health network. We are engaged in networks like Collectivity, Health Systems Global (Shapes), ITM’s alumni network, MedicusMundi and the Geneva Global Health Hub, through which we maintain a unique relation with public health experts and policymakers around the world.These connections and our research projects inform our policy advice to a range of partners including the Belgium Government, besides feeding into our teaching activities. We cover the global health and planetary health agendas, as well as pharmaceutical policies and ethics." "Environment and Health" "Peter Hoet" "ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH (E&H)The Centre for Environment and Health (E&H) includes the following closely linked areas of research: (a) Occupational and Environmental Exposure and Toxicological Assessment; (b) Occupational and Environmental medicine; (c) Insurance medicine; (d) Youth Health Care; (e) Infection Prevention and Control; (f) Nutrition. The interaction between environment and health in different age groups and settings is the main and common focus of the research of E&H in the different areas of attention.Occupational and Environmental Exposure and Toxicological Assessment The broad research objective of the unit is to improve scientific knowledge (and, hence, practice) in environmental health and exposure, through epidemiologic, basic and applied research. The human epidemiologic studies comprise ‘classic’ exposure and effect studies to pollutants in the workplace or in the general environments (e.g. carcinogens, irritants, metals, particulate air pollution, green spaces) in Belgium and also in developing countries (e.g. Morocco, Pakistan, DR Congo).The experimental studies are conducted in two laboratories: (1) the Laboratory of Occupational Hygiene is an analytical laboratory where methods are developed and validated to assess environmental and human samples after exposure, and (2) the Laboratory of Occupational and Environmental Toxicology performs translational research regarding mechanisms of toxicity of inhaled pollutants with an emphasis on ultrafine particles and engineered nanoparticles, and immunological and non-immunological mechanisms of chemical-induced asthma.Occupational and Environmental Medicine In addition to the above mentioned epidemiologic ‘exposure’ studies, this unit investigates the impact of environment on health in humans by unravelling the underlying mechanism and also the reverse how health can affect work (dis)ability. The first scope focuses mainly on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of disease development. Here, we apply a translational study design: often starting from lab findings, obtained through the exposure of cells or animals to specific agents (e.g. particles, metals, pesticides, solvents, dental composite). The main focus of the second scope is the social environment and the psychological health, e.g. alcohol and other drug use at work; healthy ageing, determinants of burn out.Insurance medicine Insurance medicine is the application of the science and art of medicine to the assessment of the life and health insurance risk. The unit makes use of its position close to sickness funds and private insurers to enhance its research, teaching and external profile. Its research relates a range of theoretical and applied issues in disability, life insurance, malpractice and health care. Particular and present areas of research include disability following low back pain with a major focus on return to work. Future research is also aimed at analysing mortality and disability risk in underwriting.Youth Health Care This unit conducts clinical-epidemiological in child health services research, the evaluation of preventive programs, the assessment of child growth and development, the management of chronic disease and psychological well-being of children and adolescents. The unit is also initiator and promoter of evidence-based youth health care in the fields of prevention and early detection. Being one of the founding members of the Leuven University Vaccinology Centre (LUVAC), the unit is actively involved in vaccinology research, including clinical trials and vaccination coverage studies in the general population (i.e. children and adolescents) and in specific risk groups with chronic disease.Infection Prevention and Control The unit is mainly in charge of infection prevention and control for the University Hospitals Leuven. Research was until now focused on the evaluation of the efficacy of disinfectants in their different modes of application and the description and analysis of outbreaks and their preventive measures. At this moment the unit participates in a Belgium-Netherlands INTERREG project i-4-1 Health with focus on antimicrobial resistance and infection control in a one Health setting (veterinary, community and health care). The project focuses on research and innovation and is allocated for a period of 3 years, starting from 1/1/2017. A PhD student is analysing and optimizing the quality of home care by health practitioners. Finally, research collaboration exists with the department of Primary Care, especially in the area of infection control in long-term care facilities.Nutrition The research of this unit is mainly of a clinical-epidemiological nature. The main focus is prevention of chronic diseases by lifestyle adaptations (diet, physical activity, stress, sleep).  Further on, the unit is also involved in public health issues coming up from the Superior Health Council (nutritional guidelines, food composition table, workgroup on diet, safety and health, specific questions according to actuality), and the Flemish institute for healthy living (educational tools). " "Equity and Health" "Medicine and Pharmacy academic/administration" "Our research vision is to improve health care with attention to quality of life and respect for the autonomy of each individual. The research groups of the Faculty have been divided over 10 clusters.  An overview of the research performed in the different clusters:Medical imagingCardiovascular disordersCentral nervous system disordersDevelopment and ageingDiabetesLiver disordersOncologyReproduction, genetics and regenerative medicinePublic health"