Professor in neurosurgery dedicated to Spine Care Chair research department Neurosurgery UNCH (University Neurosurgery Centre Holland) President Netherlands Association for Neurosurgery President Cervical Spine Research Society Europe Board member Eurospine, Chair Research Committee

More information about Carmen Vleggeert-Lankamp

Professor in neurosurgery dedicated to Spine Care
Chair research department Neurosurgery UNCH (University Neurosurgery Centre Holland)

President Netherlands Association for Neurosurgery
President Cervical Spine Research Society Europe
Board member Eurospine, Chair Research Committee

Leerstoel

Theme 1: Evaluation of efficacy and cost-effectiveness of spinal care. It is explored which interventions lead to the optimum gain in patient wellbeing.

Theme 2: Exploring radiological outcome data to giving more insight in the etiology of degeneration processes, but also in the additional value of the separate entities of image-forming techniques. The development and use of machine learning algorithms is introduced to systematically evaluate radiological data. Cooperation with experts from Technical University Delft, Erasmus University and Harvard Medical school successfully allows combining clinical expertise and technical knowledge to exploit our data. Deep learning algorithms and prediction models are added to our evaluation tools.

Theme 3: Gaining insight in the etiology of pain in radiculopathy. Histological and chemical data are evaluated and combined with clinical and radiological data in a promising strategic alliance with the departments of Immunology and Clinical Chemistry in the LUMC.

The strength of working on these three research lines simultaneously is that outcome data in each line can improve the interpretation of outcome in the other lines. This has been proven to encourage the generation of new ideas and alternative hypotheses.

Academic career

Carmen Vleggeert-Lankamp obtained her pharmacist diploma in 1995, after successfully graduating in Pharmacy at Utrecht University in 1993. In 1998, she received her medical degree, after which she completed her training as a neurosurgeon from 1998 to 2006 in a so-called AGIKO construction, and obtained her PhD ('Peripheral nerve graft architecture affects regeneration, December 14, 2006) on the evaluation of peripheral nerve regeneration. In 2006, she began specializing in spinal surgery. Currently, she coordinates a research group with several PhD students working on research themes ranging from cervical to lumbar and from degenerative to congenital spinal diseases. She focuses on evaluation studies of spine care, investigates the etiology of radiculopathy and stenosis (combining immunological, clinical chemical, radiological, and clinical outcomes), which eventually lead to prediction models.

She has a long list of scientific publications and invited guest lectures. She is actively involved in spinal teaching, she is supervising multiple PhD trajectories and is involved in spine training programs of the EANS, CSRS and Eurospine.