As Professor Chair in Clinical Geriatrics, you will focus on optimizing care for vulnerable, elderly patients in hospital. You will be expected to further expand collaboration with the Circulatory Health program by improving patient care (developing a polypharmacy outpatient clinic with emphasis on cardiovascular risk management in the elderly, expanding the Vascular Cognitive and Mobility Impairment (VCMI) outpatient clinic, and developing a screening program to identify vulnerability before major cardiovascular surgery) and by research activities focused on elderly patients with vascular problems.

Your duties will include:

• Coordinating and improving care for vulnerable, elderly patients in the UMC Utrecht. This will involve close collaboration with other departments and divisions, and with the strategic theme “Patient safety and quality” of the UMC Utrecht.

• Heading the Department of Geriatrics.

• Improving the healthcare chain between primary and secondary care with regard to elderly patients by implementing a Regional Transmural Agreement on “care for the elderly” in the region. This will involve close collaboration with other professionals in this field.

• Initiating and continuing research in geriatrics with a special focus on patient safety and cardiovascular disease in the elderly.

• Coordinating the education and training of medical students, nurses, residents, fellows, and staff in the field of geriatric medicine and polypharmacy in collaboration with the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.

• Being involved in the development and implementation of screening tools and effective interventions for the vulnerable elderly at a national level.

You are a team-player and have shown that you can work closely with clinicians and other health care professionals. You have excellent communicative and organizational skills, and experience in leading, managing and motivating researchers. You are also able to valorize the acquired knowledge and management skills and experience in the financial management required to lead a research group.

You have an outstanding record as a geriatrician with specific expertise in the field of vulnerable, elderly patients, exemplified by demonstrable achievements in improving the standard of patient care at least on a national level and by having participated in the development of national consensus guidelines. You have demonstrable, specific expertise in the field of cardiovascular disease in elderly individuals, and in designing and setting-up clinical databases, as evidenced by publications in top international journals and in oral presentations. You have extensive experience in educating and training medical professionals.

Fixed-term contract: for 5 years.

For this 100% post, the maximum salary will be established at a later date. This will be a temporary appointment for 5 years.

The Chair will be positioned in the Division of Internal Medicine and Dermatology (DIGD), which has 7 departments: Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases & Acute Internal Care/Center for Home Respiration, the Van Creveldkliniek (center for benign hematology, thrombosis, and hemostasis), Rheumatology, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, and Geriatrics. The Department of Geriatrics participates in the Circulatory Health program and with the strategic theme Patient Safety and Quality of the UMC Utrecht, which aims to improve management policy regarding care for hospitalized, vulnerable elderly patients.