Suzanne Wiertsema, PhD

After some short episodes of working in primary care practices, Suzanne Wiertsema started working at the department of Physical Therapy of the VU University Medical Centre (VUmc) in 1999. From the beginning, she was intrigued by trauma patients and their rehabilitation, and she liked the challenges of working in a level-1 trauma center with its wide variety of patients. The following years she further developed and sharpened her scientific and teaching skills, always directly related to her work as clinical physical therapist on the trauma ward. In 2013, Suzanne collaborated with several colleagues to develop the Transmural Trauma Care Model (TTCM). Subsequently, they received a grant to perform a feasibility study on the cost-effectiveness of the TTCM. The results of the feasibility study were used to further improve the TTCM and to set up a multicenter trial which is currently running. Suzanne is now combining her work as clinical physical therapist with working as supervisor on this multicenter study and is responsible for implementing the TTCM in the participating hospitals.