Maximizing human developmental
potential

Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam is committed to a healthy population and excellence in healthcare through research and education (www.erasmusmc.nl). It is in the top ten of best medical institutes in Europe (QS World University Ranking 2014) and excels in various research fields, studying fundamental and clinical domains as well as public health and prevention with an annual research budget of around €140 million. Bibliometric indicators place Erasmus MC in the top 20 of clinical medicine worldwide; its publications are cited 1.75 times the world average. In addition to scientific research, patient care and education are core tasks of Erasmus MC. It is the top referral centre for a region of about five million inhabitants. Erasmus MC is also the largest medical school in the Netherlands, with ~3,100 medical students and 234 PhD graduations in 2013. Together, the students and almost 11,000 employees at Erasmus MC improve the individual patient care and public health of tomorrow.

The Department of Paediatrics, together with the Departments of Paediatric Surgery and of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, forms the Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital, which is the oldest and largest children’s hospital in the Netherlands, with 1200 employees. The Department provides top-level health care to children with, most often, complex diseases. In addition, it provides training in paediatrics for medical students, nurses, and physicians, and it performs high-level research. The Department of Paediatrics runs the Generation R Programme, which is focused on life-course health and includes two population-based cohorts: Generation R (10,000 children included largely during pregnancy, born 2002-2006) and Generation R Next (expected 7,000 children included preconceptionally or during early pregnancy, born 2016-2019). There are close collaborations with the Departments of Epidemiology and Obstetrics, among others, and with the biomedical cluster of Erasmus MC (PIs Prof. A.G. Uitterlinden and Prof. C.M. van Duijn), which plays a leading role in the field of genomics, epigenomics, and bioinformatics.

The Department of Epidemiology is responsible for training medical and postgraduate students at Erasmus MC in the principles of epidemiology. The Department of Epidemiology is one of the participating departments in the research school NIHES (Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences). Many courses are offered by the staff of the Department which together form a substantial contribution to the Master of Science programs of the NIHES. In particular, the Master of Science programs in Epidemiology, Clinical Epidemiology, and Genetic Epidemiology are conducted under the responsibility of the department. These programs are mandatory during the first year of a PhD program in the Department of Epidemiology and the Generation R Programme. The Department of Epidemiology has experience in leading the EU Horizon 2020-funded CoSTREAM research programme (PI: Prof. C.M. van Duijn).