Research line

Prevention and empowerment

Our goal is to increase the accessibility, effectiveness and feasibility of prevention in care and well-being. We do this by focusing on working methodologies and tools to address the gaps in the current care and well-being landscape.

Within the prevention and empowerment research line, we accomplish the above by conducting practice-oriented scientific research together with practitioners, care recipients and other stakeholders. This approach means that the results of our research can generally be used immediately in practice.

We investigate current gaps and problems in the preventative healthcare landscape.
We conduct scientific research on solutions and develop tools/processes for both caregivers, the population or both, to:

Increase health literacy of the population.
Increase accessibility of preventive services to target populations with vulnerabilities.
Support and improve provider-patient communication.
Develop methods to better engage vulnerable populations in research.

Our team

Research line coordinator

Wessel van de Veerdonk

Wessel van de Veerdonk (Msc) is research coordinator for Prevention and empowerment in the Human and Welfare Research Group. His research focus is currently on optimal preventive health care specifically for people with reduced access.

Researcher

Isabelle Cuykx

Isabelle Cuykx (Communication Sciences - Msc) is a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line Prevention and empowerment. Her work includes the project 'Immersive Technology in Healthcare Training'.

Researcher

Annelies De Bruyne

Annelies De Bruyne is a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line Prevention and empowerment. She works at the interface between formal and informal care, and wants to contribute to the socialization of care.

Researcher

Remko De Duytsche

Remko De Duytsche is a researcher the research group People and Well-being, research line Prevention and empowerment. From his expertise as a nurse and teacher, he collaborates on the project Immersive Technology in Healthcare Training.

Researcher

Ann De Mey

Ann De Mey (MScN) is a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line Prevention and empowerment. From her expertise in health care, she collaborates on the research project 'Samen aan Z'.

Researcher

Wendy de Vaal

Wendy de Vaal is a researcher in the People and Well-being research group, research line Prevention and empowerment. Her focus is currently on “Samen aan Z,” an Interreg Flanders-Netherlands research project.

Researcher

Wendy D'haenens

Wendy D'haenens (PhD) has been a lecturer-researcher in the People and Well-being research group since 2016. She is an expert in subjective and objective evaluation of hearing, (classroom) acoustics and ICF (WHO) applications within speech therapy

Researcher

Liesbet Van Bos

Liesbet Van Bos is a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line Prevention and empowerment. Her focus is currently on co-creative research.

Researcher

Marlon van Loo

Marlon Van Loo is a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line Prevention and empowerment.

Researcher

Lieve Van Nieuwenhuysen

Lieve Van Nieuwenhuysen is a researcher with the research group People and Well-being, research line Prevention and empowerment. From her expertise, she focuses on the interface between formal and informal care.

Researcher

Peter Vervoort

Peter Vervoort is a researcher at the research group People and Well-being, research line Prevention and empowerment. From his expertise, he participates in the project “Immersive Technology in Healthcare Training.