Background In 2007, routine hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody testing was introduced for men who have sex with men (MSM) with a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive or unknown status attending a Dutch sexually transmitted infection (STI) outpatient clinic. We evaluated whether this screening resulted …

The consistent and unambiguous description of sequence variants is essential to report and exchange information on the analysis of a genome. In particular, DNA diagnostics critically depends on accurate and standardized description and sharing of the variants detected. The sequence variant nomenclature …

On May 20, 2016, the Member States of the European Union will have to transpose the 2014/40/EU revised tobacco directive. The dissertation in front of you provides an understanding of the revised tobacco directive and the transposition of the directive into North Rhine-Westphalian law. The historical, …

Background: The pressure in out-of-hours primary care is high due to an increasing demand for care and rising health-care costs. During the daytime, substituting general practitioners (GPs) with nurse practitioners (NPs) shows positive results to contribute to these challenges. However, there is a lack …

Current guidelines on secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease recommend nurse-coordinated care (NCC) as an effective intervention. However, NCC programmes differ widely and the efficacy of NCC components has not been studied. To investigate the efficacy of NCC and its components in secondary prevention …

At the end of January 2015 I was given a research assignment formulated and sponsored by two professors of professorships (hereafter lectoraten) associated with the Academy for Social Studies (SASS), and the manager of Professionals and Bedrijven (hereafter P&B). At a later stage, the research was expanded …

Purpose: Despite the increasing evidence that illness perceptions should be addressed in patients, there is a lack of studies evaluating whether physiotherapists question illness perceptions. This study, using a mixed-methods design, investigates the integration of illness perceptions during the first …

Abstract Background. Fever in children is common and mostly caused by self-limiting infections. However, parents of febrile children often consult in general practice, in particular during out-of-hours care. To improve management, it is important to understand experiences of GPs managing these consultations. Objective. …

The European Commission’s Fitness Check exercise, as part of the Better Regulation agenda is a very hot topic at the moment and has already covered six policy areas since 2010. At the moment, a Fitness Check is being performed on the Birds & Habitats Directives, which can be seen as the most controversial …