The uniqueness of the Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy (LIHP) is the combination of research, education and services from the faculties of medicine, economy, social sciences and law. The aim is to provide top research on healthcare policy in Flanders, Belgium and Europe. We want to do this in dialogue and collaboration with other actors in this field: governments, policy makers, healthcare stakeholders and other research centres.

Professor De Ridder is the director of this multidisciplinary research group. Aside from being a clinician and former hospital CEO, De Ridder is also the strategic co-ordinator of the KU Leuven Flemish Hospital Network, a non-profit organisation of 23 hospitals focusing on improving the quality of care.

The LIHP focuses on five complementary domains in healthcare:

Quality and patient safety

The LIHP envisions the quality and patient safety domain as defined by the Institute of Medicine: safety, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, timeliness and patient centeredness. Using the evidence-based quality indicators, the LIHP has specific expertise in the evaluation of pathology-specific care processes and care pathways. We develop and validate quality indicators at patient, health service, and government levels (i.e. public reporting).

Professor Kris Vanhaecht is an authority in the field of quality, an Institute for Healthcare Improvement advisor and secretary-general of the European Pathway Association. The European Quality of Care Pathways (EQCP) research project on orthopaedic and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a European, methodological state-of-the-art research project on implementation of care pathways in Belgium, Portugal, Italy and Ireland.

Specific attention goes to the implementation of guidelines, care pathways and decision support systems. Research on the value of technological innovation (such as wearable devices and mobile health) on the quality of care will be expanded within and across the boundaries of the university.

Health system policy and finance

In the second domain the link between health system policy and finance is investigated. Professor Walter Sermeus and Professor Katrien Kesteloot are leading investigators of this domain. Both of them are experts on the Belgian financing system for healthcare, but also have excellent international networks. Several international collaborations have been set up, as well as interesting doctoral plans.

The Registered Nurse Forecasting (RN4CAST) is a nice example of European research on organisation of nurse staffing and improved wellbeing and patient outcomes. The consortium brings together researchers from 12 European countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK), the US and three international co-operating partner countries (Botswana, China, and South Africa). RN4CAST studies the effects of nursing workforce dynamics such as the number of nurse staff, skill-mix and working environment on nurse wellbeing and patient outcomes. Findings from the study show that hospital quality, safety and staff retention problems are common in all countries. These problems are associated with organisational features of nursing care. Other examples include excellent research and expertise of quality of cancer care (INEXCA); European Health Workforce Planning and forecasting (EUHWforce); European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS) summer school; and Bayesian Methods for Modelling Hierarchical Multivariate Discrete Data.

Professor Jeroen Luyten has joined the group recently. As a postdoctoral fellow in health economics and health policy, he was affiliated with the London School of Economics & Political Science, UK. He published in leading journals in health economics and health policy and international newspapers (Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Sydney Morning Herald, etc.) Luyten has won prizes including the Pfizer’s European and Belgian HTAcademy Scholarship in 2011 and the FWO Mckinsey & Company Award in 2015. His research interest is on health-economic evaluation, valuing health and public health ethics.

Ethics and the legal aspects of healthcare

The legal and ethical research is structured in the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law and is directed by Professor Herman Nys and Professor Kris Dierickx. Nys is a consultant for the WHO and UNESCO on bioethical issues, whereas Dierickx serves as an ethicist in several ethics committees and was the co-ordinator of GeneBanC (www.genebanc.eu), an international research project (STREP) funded by the European Commission.

The legal and ethical domain entails broad comparative research on the division of labour and delegation in health professions (CORTEXS; Directive 2013/55/EU on the recognition of professional qualifications and Regulation (EU)), the implications of the European Directive on free movement of patients (European Commission), and the governance of new health and information technologies and its link with human rights (Council of Europe).

Communication in healthcare

The communication pillar focuses on the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for an efficient patient-centered communication. Professor Chantal Van Audenhove is active in the fields of care and welfare. Over the past 20 years, Van Audenhove and her LUCAS team have specialised in a number of crucial topics: social trends in care, care for the elderly, mental healthcare, communication in care relationships and welfare, and poverty and social exclusion. How to communicate efficiently with respect for privacy, sharing information with patients and their relatives (especially in physically, intellectually, psychologically and culturally challenged people), and effective communication with healthcare team members and networks are but a few examples of the LUCAS experience gathered in the Leuven Institute of Healthcare Policy.

The communication domain renders its expertise available to authorities and healthcare work fields. Existing and newly developed courses are offered to the industry, healthcare organisations and networks. The LIHP research team is available to support public and private policy makers with scientific knowledge and research.

What LIHP adds

What makes us an attractive partner for European Research Projects and Horizon 2020:

• KU Leuven is a research driven university. We are a member of the League of European Research Universities and have a strong track record of participation in international research projects;
• The Leuven Institute for Health Care Policy offers a dynamic and multidisciplinary group of researchers;
• Our researchers have strong international collaborations and networks; and
• Many of our researchers have been instrumental in designing and implementing the Belgian healthcare system. Their experience and knowledge may also serve other European countries.

Professor Dr Dirk De Ridder
Director of the Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy
University of Leuven
+32 16 346 930
dirk.deridder@med.kuleuven.be
www.kuleuven.be/ligb

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