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Marja van Dieijen Prize PreCIS

Marja van Dieijen Prize PreCIS

24 November 2023

After tallying both the audience score and the jury's score, the innovative project 'PreCIS, addressing medication prescribing cascades' won the Marja van Dieijen Award 2023, worth 25,000 euros.

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€22 million for international research into cardiovascular disease

€22 million for international research into cardiovascular disease

27 October 2023

Prof. Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca (Dept. of Cardiology) leads an international research project, focused on personalised prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

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Carim Maastricht
Carim Maastricht

Harry Crijns

Professor

Harry Crijns is professor and chair of Cardiology and board member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) at Maastricht UMC+. He studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and was trained in cardiology and electrophysiology in Groningen and Maastricht. He is a Fellow of the ESC and a past board member of the EHRA. He is also past Chair of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology. He served on several guidelines committees for the management of AF. Currently he is the chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Dutch Heart Foundation.

His primary research focus continues to be atrial fibrillation (AF). He founded the RACE trials in the Netherlands and led the Euro Heart Survey on AF (ESC). He has established his reputation by introducing innovative concepts for diagnosis and treatment of AF by showing that - quite contrary to longstanding beliefs - electrical management does not change prognosis. This revolutionised management of the arrhythmia worldwide with the effect that major interventions like electrical cardioversion, catheter ablation and antiarrhythmic drug therapy are applied in a much more personalized fashion.

Subsequently his group showed that rate control in AF can be individualized thereby removing the previously used strict heart rate targets from the international guidelines. He also performed the Euro Heart Survey on AF and made many contributions to the field of stroke management in AF, such as the construction of well-recognised AF specific risk stratification scores for AF progression (HATCH), ischemic stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc) and major bleeding (HAS-BLED). These scores have practically conquered the medical AF community and improved patient care whilst boosting new clinical research throughout the world.

His research group now focusses on recent-onset AF, hybrid AF ablation, upstream therapy and vascular mechanisms for AF progression and stroke in idiopathic atrial fibrillation. He is (co-)author on over 650 scientific articles, with 56,677 citations and Hirsch-index of 100.

Harry-crijns

Department of Cardiology
P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht 
PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht


  • 2023
    • Chua, W., Cardoso, V. R., Guasch, E., Sinner, M. F., Al-Taie, C., Brady, P., Casadei, B., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Dudink, E. A. M. P., Hatem, S. N., Kääb, S., Kastner, P., Mont, L., Nehaj, F., Purmah, Y., Reyat, J. S., Schotten, U., Sommerfeld, L. C., Zeemering, S., ... Fabritz, L. (2023). An angiopoietin 2, FGF23, and BMP10 biomarker signature differentiates atrial fibrillation from other concomitant cardiovascular conditions. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 16743. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42331-7
    • van der Velden, R. M. J., Pluymaekers, N. A. H. A., Dudink, E. A. M. P., Luermans, J. G. L. M., Meeder, J. G., Heesen, W. F., Lenderink, T., Widdershoven, J. W. M. G., Bucx, J. J. J., Rienstra, M., Kamp, O., van Opstal, J. M., Kirchhof, C. J. H. J., van Dijk, V. F., Swart, H. P., Alings, M., Van Gelder, I. C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Linz, D. (2023). Cardioversion strategy impacts rate control during recurrences in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: A subanalysis of the RACE 7 ACWAS trial. Clinical Cardiology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/clc.24161
    • Frausing, M. H. J. P., van de Lande, M. E., Maass, A. H., Nguyen, B. O., Hemels, M. E. W., Tieleman, R. G., Koldenhof, T., De Melis, M., Linz, D., Schotten, U., Weberndoerfer, V., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Van Gelder, I. C., Nielsen, J. C., & Rienstra, M. (2023). Brady- and tachyarrhythmias detected by continuous rhythm monitoring in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Heart, 109(17), 1286-1293. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-322253
    • van Mourik, M. J. W., Linz, D., Verwijs, H. J. A., Bekkers, S. C. A. M., Weerts, J., Schotten, U., Rocca, H. B-L., Lumens, J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Weijs, B., & Knackstedt, C. (2023). Evaluating subclinical left ventricular and left atrial dysfunction in idiopathic atrial fibrillation: A speckle-tracking based strain-analysis. International Journal of Cardiology, 383, 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.04.024
    • van der Heijden, C. A. J., Weberndörfer, V., Vroomen, M., Luermans, J. G., Chaldoupi, S. M., Bidar, E., Vernooy, K., Maessen, J. G., Pison, L., van Kuijk, S. M. J., La Meir, M., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Maesen, B. (2023). Hybrid Ablation Versus Repeated Catheter Ablation in Persistent Atrial Fibrillation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 9(7), 1013-1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2022.12.011
    • Koldenhof, T., Van Gelder, I. C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Rienstra, M., & Tieleman, R. G. (2023). Rate control in atrial fibrillation, calcium channel blockers versus beta-blockers. Heart. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322635
    • van der Heijden, C. A. J., Weberndorfer, V., Vroomen, M., Luermans, J. G., Chaldoupi, S-M., Bidar, E., Vernooy, K., Maessen, J. G., Pison, L., van Kuijk, S. M. J., La Meir, M., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Maesen, B. (2023). REPLY: Hybrid Ablation for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation. JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 9(7), 1195-1195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2023.03.018
    • Gottschalk, S., Kany, S., Konig, H. H., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Vardas, P., Camm, A. J., Wegscheider, K., Metzner, A., Rillig, A., Kirchhof, P., & Dams, J. (2023). Cost-effectiveness of early rhythm control vs. usual care in atrial fibrillation care: an analysis based on data from the EAST-AFNET 4 trial. EP Europace, 25, Article euad051. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euad051
    • van de Lande, M. E., Rama, R. S., Koldenhof, T., Arita, V. A., Nguyen, B. O., van Deutekom, C., Weberndorfer, V., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Hemels, M. E. W., Tieleman, R. G., de Melis, M., Schotten, U., Linz, D., Van Gelder, I. C., Rienstra, M., & RACE V Investigators (2023). Time of onset of atrial fibrillation and atrial fibrillation progression data from the RACE V study. EP Europace, 25(5), Article euad058. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euad058
    • Arita, V. A., Van de Lande, M. E., Ekrami, N. K., Nguyen, B. O., Van Melle, J. M., Geelhoed, B., De With, R. R., Weberndorfer, V., Erkuner, O., Hillege, H., Linz, D., Ten Cate, H., Spronk, H. M. H., Koldenhof, T., Tieleman, R. G., Schotten, U., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Van Gelder, I. C., & Rienstra, M. (2023). Clinical utility of the 4S-AF scheme in predicting progression of atrial fibrillation: data from the RACE V study. EP Europace, 25, 1323-1331. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac268
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