Beyond the scientist: Marijn de Bruin

27 November 2018

Marijn de Bruin is Professor of Health Psychology (University of Aberdeen) & Hypatia Fellow at IQ healthcare. He has a focus on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of medical treatments through developing and evaluating interventions to support self-management (including medication adherence) and lifestyle changes. Developing and applying novel methodologies in evidence synthesis of behavioral interventions (underreporting of interventions, variability in control groups, risk of bias, recruitment and retention in trials). Implementation of behavioral interventions in routine care.

Where and when were you born?
Amsterdam 1977.
Where do you live and with whom?
Nijmegen, with Saskia and offspring (almost 3 and 5).
Who was your role model when you were a kid?
Marco van Basten (boring answer but what choice did I have, really??)
Why aren’t you doing the same thing now as your role model (or do you?)
Knee injury, just like him. Or was it his ankle?
What is the thing in your (work or other) history that you are most proud of?
I never really think about that, and now that I do nothing really stands out. Perhaps that I went back packing in Nepal and India for a few months when I was 19 yrs old. Or when my kids were born (although I was probably too stressed out to appreciate it at the time).
What is it that you would like to achieve in work in the next 5 to 10 years?
1. Developing evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness across health behaviors and clinical domains, of a promising patient self-management intervention we developed. Adoption of this program in routine training for care professionals.
2. That our methodological work has led to a paradigm shift in reporting and synthesizing evidence from behavioral trials.
3. That we have identified feasible and effective models for fundamentally integrating behavioral science in healthcare delivery, and demonstrated this in various settings.
For what can we wake you up?
I quite appreciate my sleep at the moment…
What is your hobby and how good are you at it?
I’ve got 2 young kids, just emigrated from Scotland, bought a house, started a new job here while keeping my job 1 day/week in Scotland, and trying to kick-start a social life here. Before that there is a vague memory of hiking and cycling in the highlands.
What is your biggest irritation?
Irritation is temporary. So at this exact moment: Office 2007 on my desktop and websites taking 2 minutes to appear and function.
Who would you like to invite for dinner, if you had the chance?
Kevin Bridges (youtube ‘best Scottish stand up comedian’ – try watch it up to 5 mins).

Marijn de Bruin is member of theme Healthcare improvement science.