Nicole Bouvy MD, PhD

Nicole Bouvy is Professor of Innovative Surgical Techniques at the Maastricht University Medical Center. Ever since her degree (cum laude) as a medical doctor in 1993, she has been striving to diminish the trauma that a surgeon causes when performing a procedure. In that same year she pioneered as one of the first doctors to perform a laparoscopic (key-hole) operation. Today, laparoscopic surgery is widely performed and standard segment of the routine surgical practice.

Nicole finished her PhD (cum laude) in 1997 on the topic of ‘metabolic and oncological consequences of laparoscopic surgery’. By reducing the size of incisions, patients show a faster recovery and less complications. Her research focuses on prevention, early detection and minimal invasive & preventive intervention. She is globally recognized as a thought leader on a variety of strategies to avoid and prevent complications caused by the surgical knife. These include adhesions, incisional hernia and anastomotic leakage.

Nicole works intensively with the leading national and international institutions and its engineers. Her research studies are often outside the primary field of surgery, such as the development of biomaterials to decrease the occurrence of anastomotic leakage and incisional hernia, which were developed with the University of Trieste (Italy) and the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen (Fachhochschule, Germany).

In close collaboration with the Technical University Eindhoven (Netherlands) a new gel has been developed, which slowly releases chemotherapy in the intra-abdominal space in patients with peritoneal metastases. In another research program, jointly with the Technical University Twente (Netherlands) an artificial neural network is being developed enabling extreme early detection of a wide variety of diseases.