Peter Paul G. van Benthem is a full professor in Otorhinolaryngology at the ENT-department of the Leiden University Medical Center. He is also chair of this department and interim chair of the department of Ophthalmology and interim chair of Division 3 of the LUMC. In 1993 he received the Dutch ‘encouragement prize’ for his PhD thesis. In 2011 en 2012 he received, with his senior colleagues the year prize for best ‘ SUMMA-coschap’ of the educational region of the University Medical Center in Utrecht. In 2015 he was nominated for the Value Based Health Care prize, with his project The Dutch ENT Research agenda. In 2014 he received an honorary medal of the Dutch ENT association for his work as chairman of the ENT science committee. He was chair of the Federation of Medical Specialists from 2020 until 2023.

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Peter Paul G. van Benthem is a full professor in Otorhinolaryngology at the ENT-department of the Leiden University Medical Center. He is also chair of this department and interim chair of the department of Ophthalmology and interim chair of Division 3 of the LUMC. In 1993 he received the Dutch ‘encouragement prize’ for his PhD thesis. In 2011 en 2012 he received, with his senior colleagues the year prize for best ‘ SUMMA-coschap’ of the educational region of the University Medical Center in Utrecht. In 2015 he was nominated for the Value Based Health Care prize, with his project The Dutch ENT Research agenda. In 2014 he received an honorary medal of the Dutch ENT association for his work as chairman of the ENT science committee. He was chair of the Federation of Medical Specialists from 2020 until 2023.

Otorhinolaryngology

Within the focus field of (neuro-) otology of the department of Otorhinolaryngology, his own research direction is mainly focused on regenerative medicine of the inner ear and more specific, the vestibular organ. With this, he hopes to reach a human drug platform to be able to test (gene)therapeutics for inner ear disorders. Clinically, his research concentrates on vestibular research, specially Meniere’s disease.

Furthermore, he is interested in health care research, through his project on impact of clinical research on health care and society as a whole.

Academic career

After his medical studies in Rotterdam, but also partly at the Yale University, University of Cambridge and l’Université de Grenoble, he started histo- and electrophysiological research of an experimental guinea pig model for Meniere’s disease at the predecessor of the University Medical Center Utrecht. After a year of research, he simultaneously started training to become an ENT-surgeon. In 1992 he finished his training and in the same year he got his PhD degree for his thesis ‘Histophysiological studies of experimental hydrops’, for which he received the Dutch ENT encouragement prize in 1993. The thesis defense took place on the 17^th of November 1992.The lecture he held on the occasion of his nomination as a professor in Leiden, contemplated on the different research modalities in ENT and their clinical and societal relevance. Its title was: Contemplations on clinical research; from evidence-based medicine to evaluation of care. (8-4-2016).

Prizes and honourable appointments

IN 1993 he received the Dutch ENT encouragement prize for his thesis ‘Histophysiological studies of experimental hydrops’. In 2011 en 2012 he received, with his senior colleagues the year prize for best ‘ SUMMA-coschap’ of the educational region of the University Medical Center in Utrecht. In 2015 he was nominated for the Value Based Health Care prize, with his project The Dutch ENT Research agenda. In 2014 he received an honorary medal of the Dutch ENT association for his work as chairman of the committee that resulted in a strategic plan for the association and for his role as chair of the ENT science committee.

Activities