Rudolf W. Poolman is professor of orthopaedic surgery by special appointment in Healthcare Evaluation in the LUMC and OLVG Amsterdam.

More information about Rudolf Poolman

Healthcare evaluation

General vision: Continuous and methodological robust healthcare evaluation, as part of a quality cycle, is the key to add value to patients by selecting effective treatments and eliminating unnecessary treatments resulting in a financially sustainable healthcare system.

Research: My first goal is to improve patient care by combining the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and Value Based Health Care (VBHC). This model incorporates feedback from patients using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). These data can be combined with more rigorous outcome data, such as complication rates, readmission rates, biomarkers, wearable data collectors,  to improve value to the patient. VBHC uses plan-do-check-act cycles to implement research findings in clinical practice, thus VBHC is the vehicle supporting my second goal: to implement new evidence into clinical practice. VBHC compares existing practice variation between patient groups as well as between hospitals, it can spark new research building new evidence. I am chairing a taskforce prioritizing the research agenda for the Dutch Orthopedic Association focusing on healthcare evaluation. Aligning stakeholders for prioritised healthcare unanswered questions is a paradigm shift in research:  research done by small research groups shifts to nationwide and international research consortia concentrating on outcomes important to patients. I will run methodological sound (inter)national multi center trials underlining the importance of cooperation between university hospitals, STZ, and other hospitals. This collaboration will be integrated in CORE, thus safeguarding implementation within the orthopaedic community. New trial designs will include nested RCTs in registries like the LROI (Dutch Arthroplasty Register or local registries like longitudinal Leiden Orthopaedics Osteo-Arthrtis Study (LOAS) . The existing close collaboration with the departments of Biomedical Data Sciences, Clinical Epidemiology and the Center for Quantative Methods in LUMC will result in innovative research methodology suitable for surgical interventions. The methodology as well knowledge on how to start healthcare evaluation as well as building consortia can be used as a blueprint to other (surgical) medical fields, and even initiate close collaboration between medical fields.

Academic career

My scientific work over the past years focussed on the introduction of robust research methodology into orthopaedic surgery, thus moving towards evidence based orthopaedic surgery. During my research fellowship in 2006 I was integrated into the Center for Evidence-Based Orthopaedics at McMaster University Hamilton, Canada where I worked closely with prominent clinical epidemiologists. Multiple collaborative projects resulted in my PhD thesis “Moving Towards Evidence Based Orthopedic Surgery”, at University of Amsterdam. The skills I learnt during my PhD training prepared me to become the Founding Director of JointResearch OLVG Amsterdam, a leading research organization. The mission of JointResearch is to improve evidence based orthopedics and facilitate research collaborations. JointResearch’s first multicenter study was industry funded and evaluated a new hip prosthesis as part of a stepwise introduction. With this funding I was able to build a team that successfully applied for grants. Consecutively, ZonMW grants were received, funding multi center trials. These trials need teamwork between University hospitals and STZ hospitals. Collaboration with industry resulted in implant migration studies (RSA studies) which are part of a phased introduction of new implants in partnership with department of Orthopaedics LUMC. Other orthopedic implant related research focused on performance of these implants in the real-world, by evaluating large registry cohort studies. Moreover, I collaborated in multiple international hip fracture studies. Finally, my work focuses on guidelines to be used in daily clinical practice, by implementing evidence illustrated by the international BMJ rapid recommendation series. My scientific work resulted in over 150 peer reviewed publications including articles in JAMA, Lancet and NEJM.

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