Rachel Kalmann appointed professor

The Department of Ophthalmology is one of the largest departments at the LUMC and focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the eye, the tear ducts, the eyelids and the eye socket. The department specializes in eye oncology, pediatric ophthalmology, retinal disorders and disorders of the eye socket and skull base.

Center of expertise for eye melanoma and skull base tumors

Kalmann: “We are the referral center for eye melanomas in the Netherlands. Care for these patients and scientific research into this condition are already at a high level. I want to facilitate our specialists and researchers in their work to take care and research to an even higher level. We want to be able to help patients with this condition faster by providing better diagnostics and even better treatment options, with optimal quality of life.”

LUMC is also a center of expertise for skull base tumors, such as pituitary and meningeal tumors. Patients with these conditions are seen and treated in a multidisciplinary team, including ophthalmologist, neurosurgeon and endocrinologist. Kalmann: “This area of expertise completely aligns with my personal area of interest within ophthalmology, which is the eye socket. We want to improve diagnosis of and differentiation between the various abnormalities in the eye socket in order to apply the right treatment sooner. We do this in collaboration with the MReye group, among others. This is a research group in the LUMC in which the Department of Ophthalmology, Radiology and Radiotherapy work closely together. Good low-threshold cooperation with other disciplines is very important to me.”

Resume

Kalmann studied medicine in Utrecht. After two years of training as a neurologist in Utrecht, she transferred to ophthalmology at the Amsterdam UMC. Already during her training she developed an interest in orbital surgery (eye socket, eyelids or tear ducts) and eyelid surgery, in which she specialized after her training.

From 1996 to July 2024, she worked at UMC Utrecht as an orbital surgeon and wrote her dissertation on Graves' eye disease. Now she will start working as a professor and department head at LUMC. Kalmann is also president of the Dutch Orbital Society and a board member of the ESOPRS (European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery).