Rutger Jan Nievelstein has been appointed Professor of Pediatric Radiology. The new chair, which falls under the Child Health spearhead, strengthens the collaboration between UMC Utrecht and the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology.
Since November 1999, Rutger Jan has been working as a (pediatric) radiologist in the Radiology & Nuclear Medicine Department of the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital and the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. Within pediatric radiology, his specific interest is in congenital anomalies and genetic disorders (including skeletal dysplasias), neuroradiology, oncology (including late effects) and radiation protection. From 2013 to the end of 2021 he was responsible as a trainer for the Medical Follow-up Radiology training of the Radiology & Nuclear Medicine department. Since the beginning of his career, Rutger Jan has been an active member of numerous national and international boards and committees focused on pediatric radiology and education. In 2019 he received an honorary membership of the European Society of Pediatric Radiology (ESPR).
In addition to involvement in various multidisciplinary research projects, Rutger Jan is the principal investigator of the line of research focused on the development of advanced imaging techniques in lymphoma, ‘Advanced imaging techniques in pediatric malignant lymphoma’. He has also made an important contribution to the introduction of new radiological techniques, with a focus on minimizing radiation exposure in children. With the appointment as professor, he expects, together with the team of pediatric radiologists, to contribute to the further improvement of imaging diagnostics and image-guided treatments in children. Thanks to medical advances in pediatrics, the survival rates of children with oncological and various (chronic) non-oncological conditions have improved significantly in recent decades. As a result, attention to the impact of disease and treatment in the longer term has become increasingly important. In addition to the evaluation and introduction of existing and new innovative imaging techniques, the focus of his research group is therefore on the role of imaging in the detection of early and late disease and therapy-related side effects, surveillance, and the determination of unusual development.
