Prof. Dr. D.M.F.M. (Désirée) van der Heijde

I obtained my medical degree in 1986 from the Catholic University in Nijmegen. On the 8th of March 1991 I defended my thesis entitled: 'Disease activity and outcome in rheumatoid arthritis. A methodological study' successfully at the university of Nijmegen. I became a Board-Certified Rheumatologist in 1993. Following a 1-year appointment in Sweden in 1993, I joined the Department of Rheumatology at the University Hospital Maastricht until 2007, when I took up my current position as Professor of Rheumatology in particular outcome research at the LUMC. Since 2007, I have also been affiliated to the Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway. I am visiting professor at the University of Oslo since 2024. The Lancet published in 2018 a summary of my career.
I have an appointment of 0.2 fte at the department of rheumatology, completely dedicated to research. There is a strong collaboration in various research projects with the department of radiology. Moreover, there are many collaborations with international research groups. I am member of the board of the MERIT foundation.

All research activities are focused around the central theme of ‘outcome assessment’. This includes assessment of disease activity (inflammation) as well as the consequence of the disease (structural damage, health related quality of life). The main diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthritis. I received the Gosling award for my thesis, the prestigious Carol Nachman Award in 2011, a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Ghent in Belgium in 2012, and the Jan van Breemen medal in 2017. I am an honorary member of EULAR. I published more than 1100 papers in the international literature, as well as chapters in leading rheumatology textbooks. I am editor of Hochberg’s Rheumatology textbook, associate editor of the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, member of the editorial board of RMD Open and the Journal of Rheumatology. I am listed on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list yearly from 2014 onwards. In 2024, I am listed as #16 on the list of Research.com for medicine in the Netherlands and # 506 in the world. My H-factor is 170 & D-factor is 162.