Rudi GJ Westendorp
  • Source: Scopus
20152024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

CV

Current Positions

  • Professor of Medicine of Old Age, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Principal Investigator of the Novo Nordisk Fonden Challenge Grant ‘Harnessing the Power of Big Data to Address the Challenge of Ageing’
  • Senior Scientist, Statistics Denmark, Denmark

Education

Institution

Degree

Year

Field of Study

INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

EMC (honours)

2021

Change management

Dutch Epidemiologic Society, Netherlands

MsC

1997

Epidemiology

Leiden University, Netherlands

PhD

1993

Physiology

University Hospital Leiden, Netherlands

Consultant

1992

Critical Care

University Hospital Leiden, Netherlands

Consultant

1990

Internal medicine

Leiden University, Netherlands

MD (honours)

1984

Medicine

 

Career

Trained as an MD (1984) I became a consultant in Internal Medicine (1990) and Critical Care (1992). A series of experimental studies on critically ill patients provided me with a PhD (1993). I acquired an additional master in epidemiology (1997) how to design, handle, and analyse clinical studies. One of my early contributions was on fatal trajectories of meningitis, published in Lancet. As my clinical activities moved to caring for older patients, I became a research fellow into the biology of ageing at the University of Manchester (1998). As a result of this stay, I published on the fertility-longevity trade-off in Nature.

When appointed full professor of Medicine in Old Age (2000), I combined my clinical position as head of the department of Gerontology and Geriatrics at the University Hospital Leiden with research into ageing. Often my observational studies were followed by human experiments in small groups, others by clinical trials in large numbers. These findings have led to numerous publications in general biomedical journals, including over 50 contributions in N Engl J Med, JAMA, Lancet, and BMJ.

In 2008 I became the founding director of the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, a privately funded institution in collaboration with the university, hospital, and municipality of Leiden. It became home for a series of PhD students on the economical, psychological, and social aspects of ageing. Moreover, I initiated the Master of Science on Vitality and Ageing that attracted ample international students.

It was 2015 when I moved to the University of Copenhagen to become co-director of the Center for Healthy Ageing of which I had membered the scientific advisory board since its inception in 2009. It allowed me to make a next step to perform state-of-the-art fundamental and inter-disciplinary research. The NNF challenge program awarded me (2018) a personal grant to connect biological specimen with population registers, attracting excellent researchers, and using their complementary expertise to address the challenge of ageing.

When I grew older myself, my focus shifted from children to older people, from health to well-being, from patients to society, from professionals to organizations, from doing to inspiring, and from the Netherlands to Denmark. By integrating the knowledge of business administration with the psychological disciplines at INSEAD, I’ve a better understanding of people on a fundamental level and use this skill to create more effective organizations.

 

Awards

2017    Harry Bröstrom Award, Association of Internal Medicine, Sweden

2014    Knight in the order of the Dutch Lion, Netherlands

2009    Honorary Doctor of Medicine, Newcastle University, England

2008    Fellow Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, Haarlem, Netherlands

2008    Visiting professor, Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine, Australia

2007    Member of the Dutch Health Research Council, The Hague, Netherlands

2004    Career profile: “Tying It Together.” Sci. Aging Knowl. Environ. 2004;9:nf23

2004    Personal profile. Lancet 2004;363:1334

1998    Siebold Medical Award, University of Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan

1996    IFCC-AVL award, Society for Laboratory Medicine, Utrecht, Netherlands

 

Life Time Bibliometric Output

Source

Publications

Citations

h-index

i10-index

Science Citation Index

>750

>45.000

>100

 

Google Scholar

>1000

>70.000

>125

>500

For my peer reviewed publication list: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=westendorp+R.

  

Teaching activities

2015-now    Professor of Medicine, faculty of health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2000-now    Successfully supervised 50+ PhD students; four are appointed full professor

2000-2018   Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Health, University Leiden, Netherlands

2010-2015   Director Master Vitality and Ageing, University Leiden, Netherlands

2000-2018   Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Health, University Leiden, Netherlands

1993-2000   Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, University Leiden, Netherlands

  

Institutional Responsibilities

2015-2020.   Co-director, Center for Healthy Ageing, Copenhagen University, Denmark

2012-2014    Director of the “VITALITY!-Program” of Medical Delta, Netherlands

2008-2014.   Founding Director Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, Leiden, Netherlands

2007-2014    Chairman National Program “Care for Older People”, Health Ministry, Netherlands

2007-2010    Founding Director of the “Netherlands Consortium of Healthy Ageing”

2004-2008    Founding Chairman Section of Geriatrics, Association of Internal Medicine, Netherlands

2000-2014    Head Department Gerontology and Geriatrics, University Hospital Leiden, Netherlands

 

Membership Reviewing Boards

2018-2021     Scientific Advisory Group, National Innovation Centre for Ageing, Newcastle, UK

2016-2020     Scientific Advisory Group, EU funded consortium SELFIE

2010-2019     Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research,Germany

2009-2014     Scientific Advisory Board, Center for Healthy Ageing, Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-2018     Scientific Advisory Board, Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Netherlands

2009-2019     Editorial Board Age and Ageing

2004-2018     Editorial Board Aging Research Reviews

2003-2012     Editorial Board Journal of Experimental Gerontology

2000-2015     Editorial Board Netherlands Journal of Medicine

 

Ongoing Grants

“Harnessing the power of big data to address the societal challenge of ageing”

www.dataforgood.science

Principal-Investigator; 8 Mio Euro (2018-2024) Novo Nordisk Fonden, Hellerup, Denmark

 

“Center for Healthy Aging”

https://healthyaging.ku.dk/

Co-Investigator; 10 Mio Euro (2019-2023) Nordea Fonden, Copenhagen, Denmark

Short presentation

We need a better understanding of human ageing to interfere in the psycho-social and bio-molecular process and prevent the occurrence of degenerative diseases. To this end we connect biological specimen with population registers, attracting excellent researchers, and using their complementary expertise to enablie people to live healthier for longer.

Data For Good Science is the communication platform for The Novo Nordisk Fonden Challenge research project “Harnessing the Power of Big Data to Address the Societal Challenge of Aging”. It comprises of three main components: science, data, and ethics.

The science

Babies born today are likely to live up to 100 years old. While this exceptional life expectancy is the result of various man-made innovations, modern medicine cannot prevent that large numbers of older persons end up in ill health with a decrease in quality of life. This personal challenge comes with increased societal costs and prompts a proactive attitude prioritizing on knowledge, prevention, and treatment.

Ageing is the most important single risk factor of various degenerative diseases but the underlying mechanisms has yet to be elucidated. Each of us age with a different pace and the underlying process varies depending on our genetic heritage and the environmental conditions in which we live. It explains why older persons look dissimilar, have diverse disease manifestations, and respond differently to medical treatments. Characterizing the ageing process among individuals will provide measurable leads and targets for better diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of age-related degenerative diseases.

The data

Over the past decades, there has been significant progress on establishing electronic patient records, high definition population registries, and linkage between these different sources of data. The techniques for handling and analysing large quantities of data have become mature using novel computational approaches. These major advancements provide a unique opportunity to better understand the ageing process and to instigate series of interventions to prevent and delay the occurrence of diseases.

Denmark has the advantage of having abundant data on the entire population as well as pathological specimens that go back to the beginning of the 20th century. Combining these exceptional sources will help identify different patterns of ageing among individuals. Such a national approach overcome typical pitfalls of surveys and cohort studies which are often held back by low participation rates particularly among the very healthy and severely diseased.

The ethics

The Danish registers are an unprecedented source for knowledge and understanding how to improve individuals’ lives. Substantial progress in understanding health and medical sciences is possible through a chain of information; yesterday’s citizens donated knowledge that benefit today’s citizens, and today’s patients donate knowledge for the good of tomorrow’s patients.

The use of personal data for research is only sustainable when it balances the rights and interests the individual with that of society as a whole. Scientific explorations of personal data should be carried out in such a way that the intrusion of people’s privacy is minimal and appropriate. The specimens and data will be examined as follows:

  • Personal data are stored in such a way that they cannot disclose individuals;
  • Authorized researchers are given access to data under strict confidentiality control;
  • All use of data is consistently logged and monitored.

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or