'The Australian way of life'

Made in Maastricht: Jeroen Hendriks

For five years now, Jeroen Hendriks, alumnus of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, has lived the Australian way of life. His heart skips a beat when it comes to innovative cardiovascular care, bike rides to the Australian beach and... the Maastricht Onze Lieve Vrouweplein. What’s the story of his life and career?

Actually, Jeroen Hendriks’ adventure in Australia began with his PhD research in Maastricht. “As a PhD candidate, I was involved in a new, specialised outpatient clinic for people with atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia. I helped set up the clinic and researched its effectiveness.”

“The results were great: the patients that were treated there - compared to those who received normal healthcare - were significantly less likely to experience cardiac-related hospitalisations and mortality.” After successfully completing his PhD, he ended up as a postdoc in Sweden. The plan was to return to Maastricht after a year. But then he got a great research offer...

A perfect match down under

That offer came from the University of Adelaide and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Hendriks: “The Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders there focused at that time on the treatment of risk factors in atrial fibrillation. They asked me to work with them - a perfect match for me, considering my PhD research!” 

He seized the opportunity, but - just like in Sweden - intended to stay for just one year. By now, though, he’s been down under for five years and doesn’t know when he’s coming back to Maastricht. He describes his current position as professor of Cardiovascular Nursing at Flinders University as ‘fantastic’. What does his position entail?

Contributing to better healthcare

“I have a clinical-academic position where I translate research into practice. I also look at how we can improve on clinical problems through scientific research”, Hendriks explains. “The focus of all of the research is mainly on so-called ‘integrated care’ for cardiovascular diseases. With this approach, patients have an active role in the treatment and care is provided by a multidisciplinary team, in which specialist nurses play an important role.”

“In addition, integrated care makes use of technology and patients receive ‘holistic treatment’, including risk factors, underlying disorders and lifestyle aspects. The Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders in Adelaide and the outpatient clinic for cardiac arrhythmia in Maastricht, among others, provide this. The main question within my function is: how can integrated care be used best to improve cardiovascular treatments and their outcomes?”

Surfers and kangaroos

Hendriks is not only full of praise for his job, but also for Australian life and the climate (“In winter it’s still around 14 to 18 degrees during the day!”). “It is often said that Australians are laid-back. That’s partly true. On the weekends, many people can be found surfing or in the fantastic wine regions, but they’re also hard workers who work long days. That ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude suits me.”

“When I’m free, I love to cycle to the beach. I’m there in just half an hour! I can also enjoy a trip to the wine regions, such as Barossa Valley, or to the amazing national parks, such as Flinders Ranges or Grampians. And seeing kangaroos or koalas is still special.”

Australië

Photography: Pexels / Catarina Sousa

‘Drowning’ in documents

Despite his happiness in Australia, Hendriks still feels a close connection to Maastricht (“I have wonderful memories, especially at the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein”). He was born in Swalmen in the province of Limburg, studied nursing in Sittard and started working as a nurse at the Maastricht hospital in 1998. He also studied in Maastricht.

“It was my nursing department head there that encouraged me to study health sciences at the university. This programme was new at the time; there were only 15 of us. It was a nice but tough time, as I combined the study with a full-time job. My favorite teacher was Loek Hollands, a friendly man with a great personality. I remember he wasn't very good with IT, resulting in piles of printed documents in his office. He was practically drowning in them!”

The best of both worlds

Maastricht is physically more than 15,000 kilometres away, but it’s still close by when it comes to work. Hendriks still works from Australia on integrated care in the Maastricht outpatient clinic for cardiac arrhythmia. “During the corona crisis, I developed an approach with the Cardiology department with which patients can independently monitor their heart rhythm and heart rate via an app, and discuss the results remotely with their doctor (TeleCheck-AF). They don’t have to go to the hospital for this, which is preferrable during the current corona crisis. My role within this project is to provide recommendations regarding integrated care; we will also soon start research into the effectiveness of this approach.”

Hendriks hopes to implement the approach in Australia as well. He is anyway working on building a ‘bridge’ between the universities of Maastricht and Adelaide for joint research projects, exchanges and PhD research. But he has more ambitions. “I would like to use my knowledge and experience in the area of integrated care for cardiac arryhythmia for research into and treatment of other chronic (cardiovascular) disorders. I would really like to do this in Europe - in Maastricht? - perhaps in cooperation with Australia.”

By his own account, things for Jeroen Hendriks have come full circle. In this way, he combines Maastricht and Adelaide, and the best of these two ‘worlds’. Sounds like a bright future, doesn’t it?

 

Text: Milou Schreuders

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