Fabienne Dobbels

Dr. Fabienne Dobbels was born in Kortrijk on February 13, 1973. She obtained a Master in Psychology at KU Leuven in 1996 and completed her post-graduate in psychotherapy in 1999. From 1996 until 2008, she worked as a clinical psychologist at the heart transplantation program of the University Hospitals of Leuven.

After obtaining her Ph.D. in 2005, she received a 6-years post-doctoral scholarship from the Scientific Research Foundation Flanders. Appointed as a full-time professor, Dr. Dobbels is currently a senior researcher within the Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery of KU Leuven, Belgium. She is also a visiting professor at the Institute of Nursing Science of the University of Basel in Switzerland. She is the chair of the Doctoral Program “Patient-related and Public Health Research” within the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Medicine of KU Leuven. She is also the program director of the Master of Science in Nursing and Midwifery and a member of the steering committee of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

Key research topics include patient adherence, self-management, psychosocial issues, and patient-reported outcomes predominately in the field of organ transplantation, but also in other chronic illness populations, resulting in about 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Dr. Dobbels is also a reviewer for many international journals and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. She is the principal or co-investigator of several research grants and is a senior editorial board consultant for the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.