The Academic Medical Centre Amsterdam (AMC) is one of the Netherland’s largest hospitals and health research institutions. The Centre has brought its close collaboration with the Free University Medical Centre to the further level of a full legal merger (Amsterdam UMC) in January 2024.
The Health Systems and Services Research Group is an international and multidisciplinary team, part of the Department of Public and Occupational Health of the Amsterdam UMC.
Their research focuses on the measurement, management, and improvement of the performance of healthcare systems, aiming for environmentally, socially, financially sustainable and resilient health systems; on the implementation of performance intelligence and its impact, as well as on strengthening health information systems to support data-driven decision-making.
With expertise in health systems performance assessment, the group is well-equipped to employ adequate research methods to involve stakeholders and build a tool to evaluate the performance and resilience of the health system in close collaboration with the other consortium members. Therefore, their key role as WP1 lead is to employ scientific methods to review and summarise the literature, involve stakeholders, collect, and collate data in an informative way, to ultimately build a resilience tool to ensure the continuity of cardiovascular care.
Dr. Ana Sofia Carvalho
MD MScPH PhD Candidate, Health Systems Researcher
Dr. Ana Sofia Carvalho is a PhD Candidate at the University of Amsterdam, within the Healthcare Services and Systems Research Unit of the Department of Public and Occupational Health. She has a background as a Medical Doctor, trained as an Internal Medicine Specialist (Lisbon, Portugal) and holds a Research Master in Public Health Epidemiology (NIHES, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands). Her research focuses on strengthening health systems’ performance, notably their efficiency and resilience, particularly in the fields of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular care, the latter as part of the EU-funded project RESIL-Card. She aims to contribute, with her research work, to strengthen health information systems and support decision-making at the policy and managerial levels to improve health outcomes
Dr. Óscar Brito Fernandes
PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Expert WHO Collaborating Centre for Quality and Equity in Primary Health Care Systems
Dr. Óscar Brito Fernandes is a health services and systems postdoctoral researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). He has an extensive educational background, including a bachelor’s in mathematics, a master’s in education, a master’s in health care management, and a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on assessing the performance and management of health systems. He aims to transform health (care) systems into people-centered value-based systems by promoting citizen engagement and utilising performance intelligence to inform health policy decision-making.
Prof. Niek Klazinga
MD PhD, Professor of Social Medicine, Senior health system & service performance measurement & management expert
Prof. Niek Klazinga is a Professor in Social Medicine at the Academic Medical Centre at the University of Amsterdam since 1999 and has coordinated the Health Care Quality Indicator work of the OECD in Paris from 2007 until 2023. Prof. Klazinga has been involved over the past 30 years in numerous health services research projects and policy debates on quality of care and published widely on the subject. Present commitments include advisor to the OECD, WHO/Euro and to the Canadian Institute for Health Informatics.
Dr. Dionne Kringos
PhD, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor in Health Systems and Services Research, Research Group Leader in (Primary) Health Care System Development and Evaluation
Dr. Dionne Kringos holds a B.Sc. degree in Health Policy and Management, a M.Sc. degree in International Health Economics, Policy and Law, a M.Sc. degree in Health Services Research, and a PhD degree in Health Systems Research. From 2005 to 2012, she worked as an International Health Services Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL). She currently is working as Principal Investigator and Associate Professor in Health Systems and Services Research, as Research Group Leader in (Primary) Health Care System Development and Evaluation, and Chair of the Quality and Organisation of Care Section at the Department of Public and Occupational Health of Amsterdam UMC (University of Amsterdam) in the Netherlands, and as Vice-Director of the Amsterdam Public Health research institute (APH).
