HELPPFL
Health-economic evaluations of prevention policies in Flanders.
This research project consists of developing and elaborating on health economic evaluations focusing on universal preventative health strategies. Specific (prevention) strategies are evaluated for their impact and cost-effectiveness to support the policy decisions for the Flemish Government.
Contact persons of the project: Max Lelie & Bo Vandenbulcke
SmartQi
Societal Benefit of Markerless Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy: a Statistical Support based on Quantitative Imaging” (SmartQi) project is to improve the efficiency of advanced radiotherapeutic techniques and to increase patient access to state-of-the-art radiation therapy. SmartQi allows a collaboration between various research domains, such as radiotherapy, radiology, biostatistics and health economics.
Contact persons of the project: Eva Kimpe
HeaRTWise
HeaRTWise (Health Economic Analysis of Return To Work and societal cost of cardiovascular diseases) -project aims to improve accuracy of patient-specific prognoses for occupational outcomes following Cardiovasular diseases (CVDs).
Contact person of the project: Ellen Tisseghem
HEALTH PFAS
"Health Economic Analysis and Long-Term Impact of PFAS: A Flemish Study"
This study assesses the health impact of PFAS in Flanders and calculates direct and indirect costs. It includes a risk assessment of the environmental health area, cost-of-illness and budget impact studies by I-CHER, and a legal analysis of reimbursable alternatives.
Contact person of the project: Zoë Vandamme
BRILIANT
The BRILIANT project uses big data to address the lack of research on pediatric traumatic brain injury due to small sample sizes. It aims to describe brain-injured children using epidemiological data, model care trajectories, and predict outcomes based on patient characteristics. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, it identifies barriers to care access and suggests health policy improvements.
Contact person of the project: Viktor-Jan De Deken
PIANISSIMO
Pianissimo is a three-arm multicenter randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether a pain medication tapering program before spinal cord stimulation (SCS) implantation is more effective in reducing disability after 12 months in patients with Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome Type II who are scheduled for SCS implantation compared with usual care.
Contact person of the project: Frenn Bultinck
Opera
Current post-operative interventions are seemingly not effective to achieve return to work after Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) implantation for patients suffering from therapy-refractory persistent spinal pain syndrome type II (PSPS-T2). Despite evidence that SCS can improve RTW, only 9.5 to 14% of patients implanted with SCS are make a successful return to work. This is where the OPERA trial finds it's objective: to examine whether a personalised biopsychosocial rehabilitation programme specifically targeting RTW alters the work ability in PSPS-T2 patients after SCS implantation compared to usual care. More details on the trial can be found at: https://stimulus.research.vub.be/en/opera
Contact persons of the project: Jonas Callens
VIACT
Valuation of Intangible Aspects of Cancer Therapies
A cancer diagnosis marks the beginning of a complex decision-making process in which patients are faced with multiple intensive and often burdensome treatment options with uncertain outcomes. The evaluation of cancer therapies is typically conducted from the perspective of healthcare professionals, with a strong emphasis on survival rates and clinical effectiveness. As a result, intangible aspects such as pain reduction, uncertainty about recurrence, and communication are often overlooked, even though they greatly contribute to patients’ well-being.
The VIACT project aims to address this gap by assessing the value of the intangible aspects of cancer therapies, with a specific focus on patients with head and neck (ENT) and rectal tumors. Central to the project are discrete choice experiments (DCEs), which quantify the relative importance of different treatment attributes. The findings from the DCE can contribute to a better understanding of value assessment and patient preferences. The VIACT project further explores how such value assessments can be integrated into more patient-centered decision-making in oncological care.
The research project is funded by Kom Op Tegen Kanker.
Contact person of the project: Charlotte Sente
AHA Boost
This project investigates whether an additional arm-hand intervention (AHA boost) can improve long-term arm-hand activity and quality of life in hospitalized stroke patients compared to a dose-equivalent treatment. The I-CHER researchers contribute to the implementation of the clinical trial and focus on the health economic aspects and process evaluation of this new approach in everyday practice.
Contact person for this project: Lisa Cruycke
TumorScope
The TumorScope project aims to build a digital health infrastructure for cancer research, leveraging the unique expertise of an interdisciplinary consortium, to develop AI-driven methods that combine real-world molecular, demographic, clinical and radiomics image data. TumorScope brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts, including physicians, IT professionals and researchers in image and molecular analyses, and ethical-legal scholars. The main focus is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours, and create a good management structure that enables the medical data sharing within the current legal framework.
Contact person for this project: Pieter Cornu
PROTIDE
T1D is a chronic autoimmune disease destroying insulin-producing beta cells, with peak incidence in adolescence and high rates of complications and healthcare costs. Early, presymptomatic diagnosis is key. This project develops improved T1D prediction models by combining biomarker and metabolic monitoring data, using evolutionary random forests and time series methods on Belgian Diabetes Registry data, validated in prospective Belgian and international cohorts. The goal is to lay the groundwork for a population-wide screening program in Flanders potentially integrated into existing neonatal screening with clinical stakeholder input and a health economic evaluation resulting in concrete policy recommendations.
Contact person for this project: Viktor-Jan De Deken
SAFE-HOME
Supporting Aggression-Free Environments in Home HealthCare.
This research project examines aggression in home healthcare in Belgium, focusing on its prevalence, forms, and risk factors for both patients and care workers. It explores the consequences of aggression and evaluates existing prevention and support measures. By incorporating care workers’ experiences and needs, the research aims to inform practical recommendations, including the development of a tool to support professionals.
Contact person for this project: Lucia Fernandez Fernandez
FoodTrack
The FoodTrack project leverages real-world purchasing behaviour as a scalable and objective proxy for dietary intake. By integrating household-level grocery purchase data with health and demographic information, the project aims to develop computational models that translate purchasing patterns into personalised dietary risk-based health metrics. These models are intended to enable the generation of tailored recommendations to reduce diet-related disease risk.
Furthermore, FoodTrack seeks to identify high-risk population groups and support timely engagement with healthcare professionals, thereby contributing to both primary prevention and early intervention strategies.
Contact persons of the project: Diederik De Cock and Lucas Schreurs
UNLOCK-OB
Unmet Needs in Obesity: Linking Knowledge to Policy
The project Unmet Needs in Obesity: Linking Knowledge to Policy (UNLOCK-OB) examines how obesity care is delivered and experienced in Belgium. It aims to map the national care pathway for people living with obesity (PwO) by evaluating how clinical guidelines are implemented in real-world practice. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the project identifies patient delays, analyzes referral patterns, and explores collaboration between healthcare providers.
Beyond care organization, the project investigates broader barriers to access, including limited awareness and persistent misconceptions about obesity among patients, healthcare professionals, and policymakers. Addressing these challenges is essential to shift the perception of obesity from an individual responsibility to a chronic condition requiring structured multidisciplinary care.
Contact persons of the project: Diederik De Cock and Lucas Schreurs
PWR-UP
PWR-UP addresses statistical challenges in biomedical animal research, where small sample sizes and design limitations contribute to poor reproducibility. The goal is to improve robustness and reproducibility while supporting the 3Rs (reduce, refine, replace). Ultimately, PWR-UP aims to deliver a user-friendly framework that promotes sound experimental design practices
Contact persons of the project: Tim Pauwels
Robotic FLASH radiotherapy: A technical, biological, clinical and societal evaluation
The FLASH project investigates ultra-high dose rate radiotherapy (>40 Gy/s), a promising approach to maintain tumour control while significantly reducing toxicity to healthy tissue, offering new options for skin and radioresistant cancers.
Embedded within an FWO large-scale research infrastructure grant and driven, the project integrates advanced dosimetry, treatment delivery, radiobiology, and clinical research. It combines technological development with preclinical and translational studies to optimise FLASH irradiation and enable safe clinical implementation.
By bridging technical, biological, clinical and societal domains, our project aims to establish a new paradigm in radiotherapy, improving patient outcomes while reducing treatment burden and healthcare impact.
Contact person of the project: Thierry Gevaert and Mark De Ridder
Resilience : Predicting Progression in Multiple Sclerosis
The Resilience project, in partnership with Nationaal MS Center Melsbroek, uses real-world data to predict multiple sclerosis (MS) progression and provide patients with practical information on the heterogeneity of the disease course, the multifaceted impact of MS, and the modifiable factors shaping general health.
At the individual level, the project advances personalized care by linking trajectories of physical disability, functional tests, and health-related quality of life to underlying health factors. These insights can support preventive and (p)rehabilitation approaches aimed at preserving and improving patients' functional capacities.
Contact person of the project: Niels Cleymans
