Martijn Pisters

Martijn F. Pisters, PhD, PT is associate professor Preventive Physiotherapy at the UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University. Furthermore, he is professor (in Dutch: Lector) and chair of the research group (in Dutch: Lectoraat) Movement Behaviour for Secondary Prevention of Fontys University of Applied Sciences. 

His research aims to contribute to empowering patients to achieve sustainable movement behavioural change and improve secondary prevention in people with chronic diseases.

His research focuses on:

• Understanding movement behaviour, behaviour change, and the mechanisms of secondary prevention
• Innovation and implementation of movement behavioural change interventions for secondary prevention
• Intelligent monitoring and e-coaching technologies to empower movement behaviour change and enhance secondary prevention

Martijn Pisters is program leader and founder of the Center for Physiotherapy Research & Innovation in Primary Care (NL: Academische Werkplaats eerstelijns Fysiotherapie), a collaboration in research, innovation and education between Fontys University of Applied Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, and the Leidsche Rijn Julius Health Care Centers.

He currently supervises fourteen PhD candidates and coordinates several large research projects. Several of these projects are conducted in international collaboration (e.g., University of Newcastle; Keele University; KU Leuven).

Martijn F. Pisters graduated as a Physiotherapist (BSc, 2002) from HAN University of Applied Sciences, obtained an MSc in Clinical Health Sciences (2006) from Utrecht University, and an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology (2009) from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Alongside his work as a physiotherapist in primary care, he started his PhD in 2006 at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

He completed his PhD in 2010 with a thesis on exercise adherence and the long-term effectiveness of behavioral graded activity in patients with osteoarthritis. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, he studied the course of physical functioning in older adults with osteoarthritis and primary care cardiovascular risk management.