Douwe Biesma is Professor of Data-driven Healthcare Improvement and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Leiden University Medical Centre since 1 July 2020. Biesma is also Professor of Internal Medicine at UMC Utrecht. He was Chairman of the Executive Board of St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein/Utrecht from 2010 to 2020. Since 2017 he combined this with the chairmanship of Santeon, a network of seven top clinical hospitals. In addition, he is one of the initiators of 'Experiment Top Care', a VWS grant of 30 million euros for highly specialised care and scientific research in three non-academic hospitals. As chairman of Santeon, Biesma also received a grant of 6 million euros from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport for research into Shared Decision Making in clinical practice.

More information about Douwe Biesma

Data-driven Healthcare Improvement

The importance of data in daily clinical practice is increasing. The focus of the academic chair 'Data-driven Healthcare Improvement' is to improve the quality of care with data. Biesma's research has four focus areas and concentrates on data-driven and value-based health care. One of those lines of research concerns data-driven changes in healthcare provision. E-health and the analysis of data are essential for the 'Right Care in the Right Place'. The corona crisis in 2020 will accelerate the pace of innovative care concepts. Biesma investigates the value of these new forms of care for the  perspective of patients.

In addition, an important focus area of the chair is the effect of transparency about outcomes on decision-making. The hypothesis of higher satisfactory and less invasive procedures in patients who are aware of outcome measures, has to be validated. The results will be used for further implementation studies in the LUMC and in alliances with other parties.

A third line of research is the quality of care after redistribution and concentration. The LUMC is discussing with other hospitals about the best place for treatment of patients with special disorders, such as trauma or neurosurgery. The aim of Biesma's research is to evaluate the concentration and redistribution of care with regard to treatment outcomes.

Finally, the chair focuses on value-based healthcare for so-called 'orphan diseases'. The LUMC has more than 40 centers registered as European Reference Network for Rare and Low Prevalence Complex Disease. Stimulating international comparison of outcome measures will increase the value of care for orphan diseases.

Academic career

After studying medicine at Utrecht University, Biesma gained his PhD at the same university in 1994, on the thesis Autologous blood transfusion, erythropoietin and iron metabolism. From 1996 to 2007 Biesma was an internist-hematologist at the St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein. From 2007 to 2010 he was chairman of the Division of Internal Medicine & Dermatology, trainer and Professor of Internal Medicine at the UMC Utrecht. From the end of 2010 to mid-2020 he was chairman of the board of St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein.

Biesma's research focused, until 2015, on thromboembolic disorders, haemato-oncological studies, the effectiveness of vaccinations in immunocompromised patients and diagnostic procedures in patients with pneumonia. Since 2017, he has mainly been involved in research into value-based healthcare. 

Publications