Dr Jeanette Wilhelmina Blom, Leiden University Medical Centre

Jeanet is researcher at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. Her medical training at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was followed by her training for general practitioner and epidemiology training in Rotterdam. After several years of working as a general practitioner and her thesis in 2005: 'Malignancy and venous thrombosis' at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology in the Leiden University Medical Center, she proceeded doing research at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

She participates in the research program of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care 'geriatrics in primary care'. The overall aim of the research program is to improve (the organization of) medical care for all older persons outside the hospital by building up scientific knowledge and evidence. Improvement of quality of life and daily functioning of older people is the main starting point of research. Her research at this department covers a wide range of subjects important in primary care, such as cardiovascular prevention in the elderly, verifying traditional risk scores (Framingham, SCORE) and studying new risk markers (homocysteine); a case-control study studying risk-factors for venous thrombosis in the elderly.

Currently she is leading a project on guided care for the elderly in primary care into the effect of monitoring of functioning of the elderly and a subsequent care plan and a project on discontinuing cardiovascular preventive medication as a consequence of new guideline implementation.