Inger Schipper is professor of Trauma Surgery, head of the trauma surgery department and director of the TraumaCenter West. Prof Inger Schipper is past president of the Dutch Trauma Surgery Association, board member of the American College of Surgery – Committee on Trauma, member of the National Council of Health care, and president of the board of AO Netherlands. She is involved in many international trauma related initiatives for research and education.

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Inger Schipper is professor of Trauma Surgery, head of the trauma surgery department and director of the TraumaCenter West. Prof Inger Schipper is past president of the Dutch Trauma Surgery Association, board member of the American College of Surgery – Committee on Trauma,  member of the National Council of Health care, and president of the board of AO Netherlands. She is  involved in many international trauma related initiatives for research and education. 
 

Trauma surgery

Trauma is the number one cause of mortality in the population younger than 40 years of age. Few people realise that trauma causes more death worldwide than HIV and Malaria together. In the Netherlands over 3.000.000 trauma patients per year visit the hospital emergency department, 80.000 of whom have injuries that need in-hospital treatment and acute admittance, and over 5.000 will be severely injured so called poly trauma patients. All of these patient categories have considerable socioeconomical impact. In the near future, due to the change mean age of our population, we will encounter fragility fractures more and more, both in severely injured patients and in patients with a single injuries. Hip fractures are an illustrative example. The prevalence of hip fractures has risen from 14.000 in 2012 to almost 20.000 in 2017. Health care evaluation specifically of trauma patients will include comparative outcome studies and prognostic modelling. It will also illustrate the growing burden of disease both to patients as well as society.

Currently, the research line ‘complex trauma care’ relates to the top-referral (TRFs) that follow the appointment of the LUMC as Regional Trauma Center. The second research line ‘(cost)effectiveness of care for common fractures’ addresses high clinical and societal impact questions. Both research lines are embedded in the  bridging themes of Prognostic Clinical Modelling and Optimising Clinical Outcome.

Academic career

Prof. Schipper has completed her studies Biomedical Sciences and Medical School at the University of Leiden, where she graduated in 1991 biomedical scientist and in 1993 as a doctor. She obtained a PhD in medicine in 2003 with her thesis entitled "Treatment of unstable trochanteric fractures: The balance between man and material", in which the treatment of non-stable hip fractures. She followed her training as a surgeon in the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam and the Weezenlande Hospital in Zwolle. From 2000 to 2008, she was as a surgeon/trauma-surgeon connected with Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, and she held a position as Medical Director of the Trauma Centre South-West Netherlands. In 2008 she was nominated as Professor of Trauma surgery and head of the subdepartmentTrauma Surgery at the Leiden University Medical Centre. Her inaugural lecture on September 28, 2009 was titled The X-factor in Trauma Surgery. Since her appointment in the LUMC, she is also at the head of the Trauma Centre West.

Publications