ROTTERDAM – On Monday afternoon, September 26, Mayor Sacha Ausems presented a royal award to Professor Dr. JMW (Mieke) Hazes of Sprang-Capelle.
Professor Hazes received the Royal Knight Award in the Order of the Netherlands Lion during a special meeting at the Erasmus MC.
Prof. dr. Dr. Hazes has held / holds the following positions:
- 2000 – today: Professor of rheumatology and thus the first female professor of rheumatology in the Netherlands.
- 2019 – present: Director of the Quality and Patient Care Department.
In its early years, rheumatism was only treated with gold injections and rest, which resulted in loss of functionality. Professor Hazes independently set up the rheumatology department within the former Dijkzigt hospital (now Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam. Rheumatology has therefore developed into a specialty where there are many new treatment options to prevent deformities caused by rheumatism. Professor Hazes combined clinical care with scientific research in the special laboratory for rheumatism. His studies on the origin of rheumatism determined that rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease.
Professor Hazes was one of the first to show that the disease can be calmed more quickly with a combination of drugs, which prevents permanent damage. He contributed to the modification of the European directives.
In 2005, together with general practitioners and physiotherapists, he developed a program to identify rheumatism early and quickly refer patients to prevent permanent damage.
Professor Hazes was the first to pay attention to women with rheumatism and the desire to have children. Together with nurses and a panel of patients, he developed a care pathway, in which he paid attention not only to drugs for rheumatism, but also to exercise, nutrition and ergonomics. Pregnancy is currently a spearhead of the Erasmus MC rheumatology department.
As director of the quality and patient care department and president of the service company, he connected care providers with care management. She was responsible for the launch of the ‘digitally connected’ program, in which in the coming years a tailor-made and remote assistance with a personalized app for each patient will be organized within Erasmus MC. This will be extended to other hospitals in the Rotterdam region and possibly to all academic hospitals in the Netherlands.
Additionally, Professor Hazes has / is developing the following activities related to her main position:
- 1996 – 2010: co-founder and board member of the European Declaration of Expectations for People with Musculoskeletal Conditions; this led to the creation of the Bone and Joint Decade initiative (2000).
- 2002 – 2011: member of the Council for Medical Sciences at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2006 – 2016: member of the Health Council
- 2010 – 2019: Member of the Medicines Evaluation Commission
- 2018 – present: member of the Supervisory Board of the Martini Hospital in Groningen and chairman of the quality and safety committee.
- 2019 – present: Member of the Board of Medical Directors of the Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers.
Professor Hazes received the following awards / evaluations:
- 1987: Boots Research Prize: Department of Epidemiology, The London Hospital Medical College.
- 1989-1990: Scholarship in Epidemiology of Rheumatic Diseases: Arthritis and Rheumatism Council, Epidemiology Research Unit, Manchester University.
- 2006: Swedish surgery for Penning rheumatism.
- 2012: Sima Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing: Friend of Nursing for the improvement of nursing care locally.
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