Ilonca C.h. Vaartjes PhD

In 2009 Ilonca defended her PhD thesis "The use of nationwide registers in cardiovascular disease research", under supervision of M.L. Bots and D.E. Grobbee. After obtaining her PhD degree, she continued working with registry data. She stayed at Liverpool University for an academic visit were she performed trend analyses (Vaartjes et al. Heart. 2011;97(7):569-73; Vaartjes et al. Stroke. 2013;44(3):591-7) and got involved in the MedCHAMPS project. She advised researchers on the use of registry data and was involved in the development of a stroke prevention policy model for Turkey (Islek et al. ). She supervises several PhD students which has broadened her knowledge on cardiovascular epidemiology and improved her leadership skills. She published in high ranking journals in both Cardiovascular, Neurology, Epidemiological and Public Health domain. She became involved in the Healthy Urban Living Program of Utrecht University and is now project leader of Health Research in the Global Geo Health Data Center. She is deputiy editor of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and vice chair of the Utrecht Health Project (Leidsch Rijn Gezondheids Project).