Nicole Ezendam successfully defends her PhD thesis

Today Nicole Ezendam received her doctorate degree after a successful public defence of her thesis entitled “Vet is niet Vet (Fat aint Phat): studies on the prevention of excessive weight gain among adolescents.” Her thesis encompasses three studies exploring determinants of unnecessary weight gain among adolescents and four studies on the development, effects and the process of the FATaintPHAT intervention. This is a computer-tailored program to motivate and enable adolescents to adopt more healthy dietary and physical activity habits.

Her research shows that the intervention appeared to help the participants to adopt healthier dietary habits, but failed to encourage them to become more physically active

The third Alpe D'Huzes cancer rehabilitation program annual meeting

Today the third annual meeting of the Alpe D'Huzes Cancer Rehabilitation (A-Care) program was held in Amsterdam. A-Care is a comprehensive program of eight PhD studies organised in two subprograms to further our knowledge on the effects of exercise in cancer rehabilitation and survival. The first subprogram focusses on clinical research to study the effects and mechanisms of effect of different exercise regimes in different groups of cancer patients. The second subprogram focusses on ways to implement and disseminate succesful exercise interventions. Dr. Laurien Buffart, the acting coordinator of A-CaRe 1 and a recent 'Bas Mulder award laureat, organised the day.

Prof. Rob Newton (see picture), and Drs. Lee Jones and Renate Winkels provided state of the art overviews of the roles of exercise and diet in cancer rehabilitation and survival, and Prof Wim van Harten and Dr. Mai Chinapaw provided overviews of ghe progress of the two subprograms.

Prof. Christianne de Groot is inaugurated as professor of obstetrics

Yesterday, Prof. Christianne de Groot gave her inaugural address as professor and head of department of obstetrics at the VU University Medical Center. She first presented the well known facts that perinatal mortality is higher in the Netherlands than in surrounding countries. She argued that for a better perinatal care true and close collaboration between extramural and intramural care, between midwifes and obstetricians, in a true women and child care center is of crucial importance. Such close collaborations are now being developed and researched within VUmc and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research.