Wilco MD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Wilco Peul has been a board certified neurosurgeon since 1998. He was trained in The Hague and is a staff member in the Medical Center Haaglanden, The Hague and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). As a general neurosurgeon with expertise in skull base surgery, he changed his interests from intracranial to complex spinal surgical procedures with a focus on the craniocervical area. Since 2004, he has been a full time spinal neurosurgeon in The Hague and Chairman of the Spine Center.

As a resident, he was impressed by his godfather in clinical research, professor Reinder Braakman. He refused a PhD program in the laboratory and early in his career gave notice that he was interested in clinical research. In 2004, he was awarded a Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the EMGO Institute, with Lex Bouter as his supervisor. This was followed in 2008 by a PhD 'cum laude' in epidemiology.

He is Director of the Spine Intervention Prognostic Study Group at Leiden University Medical Center, which evaluates surgical and conservative treatment of spinal disorders. His first randomized controlled trial evaluating the timing of disc surgery has just been successfully finished and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Besides this trial, five other (inter)national randomized multicenter trials with different spine topics are currently being led by the Study Group. Wilco is also personally involved in other randomized trials being carried out in Rotterdam and Nijmegen.