Peter van der Voort

Petrus "Peter" Henricus Johannes van der Voort (born 29 September 1964) is a Dutch physician, professor, and politician serving as a member of the Senate since 2020. He is a member of the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66).

Peter van der Voort
Member of the Senate
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 February 2020
Preceded by	Alexandra van Huffelen
Personal details
Born	Petrus Henricus Johannes van der Voort[1] 29 September 1964 Haarlem, Netherlands
Political party	Democrats 66
Children	3
Residence	Boksum, Friesland
Alma mater	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam
Occupation	Intensivist, professor

He was trained as an intensivist and has led the intensive care units of three hospitals. He is currently employed by the University Medical Center Groningen. He has also been involved in medical science since he received his doctorate. Van der Voort has been the head of an executive master at TIAS School for Business and Society since 2013. His research has focused on the improvement of intensive care quality and the effect of organizational change on the field.[2]

Early life and education

Van der Voort was born on 29 September 1964 in Haarlem.[3] There, he attended the high school Coornhert Lyceum before studying medicine between 1982 and 1990 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.[4] Van der Voort started a six-year training in internal medicine the following year at the Academic Medical Center and the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG), both situated in Amsterdam. Starting in 1996, he also received two years of education in the field of intensive care medicine at the OLVG.[3] He earned a European Diploma in Intensive Care in 1998 and received his doctor's degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1999, after three years of study and finishing his dissertation titled "Helicobacter pylori in the critically ill patient".[5][3]

He studied again at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam between 2004 and 2006, receiving a Master of Science degree in epidemiology.[3]

Career

After finishing his intensive care training, Van der Voort started working as an intensivist at the Medical Center Leeuwarden in 1998, serving for some years as head of the division.[6] He returned to the OLVG in 2006, working as medical director and educating co-workers and residents.[6][7]

In March 2013, Van der Voort became academic director of the executive master Health Administration at the Utrecht campus of TIAS School for Business and Society, that is affiliated with Tilburg University, next to his job at the OLVG.[6] He also became a professor specialized in health care at Tilburg University in July 2014.[3]

He became involved in politics in 2017 when he became a member of the board of D66 in Friesland.[8] As a board member, Van der Voort has served as interim-president of the organization for a few months (2019–2020).[3] He appeared ninth on the D66's party list during the 2019 Dutch Senate election.[9] His party won seven seats, and Van der Voort received two preferential votes out of the 50 votes the party was given – not enough to be elected senator.[10]

Van der Voort left the OLVG to start working at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in October 2019 in the position of intensivist and head of the adult intensive care division. Besides that job, he also became a professor in the field of intensive care at the start of 2020 at the University of Groningen, to which the UMCG is affiliated.[3]

He was appointed as a member of the Senate in 2020 to succeed Alexandra van Huffelen because of his position on the party list during the previous election. Van Huffelen had vacated her seat because of her new position as State Secretary for Finance after the resignation of Menno Snel.[11] Van der Voort was sworn in on 4 February. He remained in his other positions, namely as intensivist and professor in Groningen and as professor and academic director in Utrecht.[3] In the Senate, Van der Voort is a member of the Committees for Finances; Education, Culture, and Science; and Public Health, Welfare, and Sport.[12] He held his maiden speech on 16 June.[13]

COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, that reached the Netherlands in February 2020, hit the northern provinces less severe.[14] Because of that, patients from other provinces were brought in to be treated at UMCG's intensive care unit led by Van der Voort.[15] The capacity was raised from about 35 to 112 within a month starting at the end of March.[16][17] After the pandemic had slowed down, the number of beds was returned to slightly above the initial level in such a way that it can be scaled up again.[18]

During two discussions at talk show Jinek, Van der Voort drew attention to the fact that around 90% of COVID-19 patients at the UMCG's intensive care unit were obese.[19] He subsequently co-authored a scientific paper that found that obese COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure had higher levels of leptin in their blood compared to an obese control group.[20] Van der Voort hypothesized that this might be a contributing factor to respiratory failure among people with COVID-19 and that the dietary supplement resveratrol might help prevent this.[21] In August, the UMCG's research he led into the relation between COVID-19 and obesity received €450,000 in funding.[22] When vaccinations had started, Van der Voort proposed first vaccinating older men with obesity in order to decrease the number of intensive care patients.[23]

Other positions

Van der Voort has been involved in a number of organizations related to intensive care next to his job. His first such position was as member of the board of the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE), a Dutch organization collecting data from intensive care units, between 1998 and 2010.[3][24] He was the chairman of Venticare, an education foundation for intensive care, between 2004 and 2017, and he was chair of the Indicator Commission of the Dutch Commission for Intensive Care (NVIC).[3][25]

Currently, Van der Voort serves as the chair of the task force group Health Economics of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) (since October 2016) and as secretary of the Joint Intensivist Commission (since September 2017).[3] The latter consults intensive care educators.[26]

Personal life

Van der Voort resides in the village Boksum in the province Friesland.[3] He has a wife and three children.[27]

Selected publications

Scientific

• van den Bemt PM, Fijn R, van der Voort PH, Gossen AA, Egberts TC, Brouwers JR (April 2002). "Frequency and determinants of drug administration errors in the intensive care unit". Critical Care Medicine. 30 (4): 846–850. doi:10.1097/00003246-200204000-00022. PMID 11940757.
• Boerma EC, Mathura KR, van der Voort PH, Spronk PE, Ince C (September 2005). "Quantifying bedside-derived imaging of microcirculatory abnormalities in septic patients: a prospective validation study". Critical Care. 9 (6): R601-6. doi:10.1186/cc3809. PMC 1414044. PMID 16280059.
• de Jonge E, Peelen L, Keijzers PJ, Joore H, de Lange D, van der Voort PH, Bosman RJ, de Waal RA, Wesselink R, de Keizer NF (December 2008). "Association between administered oxygen, arterial partial oxygen pressure and mortality in mechanically ventilated intensive care unit patients". Critical Care. 12 (6): R156. doi:10.1186/cc7150. PMC 2646321. PMID 19077208.
• van der Voort PH, Boerma EC, Koopmans M, Zandberg M, de Ruiter J, Gerritsen RT, Egbers PH, Kingma WP, Kuiper MA (February 2009). "Furosemide does not improve renal recovery after hemofiltration for acute renal failure in critically ill patients: a double blind randomized controlled trial". Critical Care Medicine. 37 (2): 533–538. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e318195424d. PMID 19114909.
• Oudemans-van Straaten HM, Bosman RJ, Koopmans M, van der Voort PH, Wester JP, van der Spoel JI, Dijksman LM, Zandstra DF (February 2009). "Citrate anticoagulation for continuous venovenous hemofiltration". Critical Care Medicine. 37 (2): 545–552. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181953c5e. PMID 19114912.
• van den Boogaard M, Pickkers P, Slooter AJ, Kuiper MA, Spronk PE, van der Voort PH, van der Hoeven JG, Donders R, van Achterberg T, Schoonhoven L (February 2012). "Development and validation of PRE-DELIRIC (PREdiction of DELIRium in ICu patients) delirium prediction model for intensive care patients: observational multicentre study". The BMJ. 344: e420. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181953c5e. PMC 3276486. PMID 22323509.

Books

• (2012, Venticare) Nieren en nierfunctievervanging op de IC: Een praktische handleiding (Kidneys and renal function replacement on the ICU: a practical guide; ISBN 978-90-72651-29-7 / ISBN 978-90-72651-36-5 (2018 revised edition))
• (2018, Venticare) Infecties, bacteriën en antibiotica op de IC: Een praktische handleiding (Infections, bacteria and antibiotics on the ICU: a practical guide; ISBN 978-90-72651-37-2)

References

1. "Prof.Dr. P.H.J. (Peter) van der Voort M.Sc". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Parlementair Documentatie Centrum. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
2. "Peter van der Voort hoogleraar Healthcare bij TIAS". Zorgvisie (in Dutch). 21 July 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
3. "Prof.dr. P.H.J. van der Voort M.Sc. (D66)". Eerste Kamer (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 February 2020.
4. Westhreenen, Saskia van (21 March 2020). "Hoofd intensive care UMCG zit in een heel nare droom die iedere dag weer echt blijkt te zijn". Leeuwarder Courant (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 April 2020.
5. "Helicobacter pylori in the critically ill patient". University of Amsterdam. hdl:11245/1.155499.
6. "Prof.dr. Peter van der Voort". TIAS School for Business and Society. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
7. Westhreenen, Saskia van (14 January 2019). "Medicus uit Boksum voor D66 naar de Eerste Kamer". Leeuwarder Courant (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
8. "Even voorstellen..." (PDF). Democraat (in Dutch). The Hague: Democrats 66. May 2019. p. 31. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
9. "Proces-verbaal over geldigheid en nummering kandidatenlijsten" (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 1 May 2019. p. 9. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
10. "Eerste Kamer 27 mei 2019". Kiesraad (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
11. "Kiesraad benoemt P.H.J. van der Voort tot lid Eerste Kamer". Kiesraad (Press release) (in Dutch). 30 January 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
12. "Lidmaatschappen P.H.J. van der Voort". Eerste Kamer (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
13. "Maidenspeech van Prof.dr. P.H.J. van der Voort M.Sc. (D66)". Eerste Kamer (in Dutch). 16 June 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
14. Mersbergen, Chris van (25 July 2020). "Wordt het virusvrije noorden straks de dupe van problemen Randstad?". Het Parool (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
15. Hulscher, Eva (24 March 2020). "Intensive Care-baas UMCG: 'Met maximale inspanning kan het Noorden corona aan'". RTV Noord (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 April 2020.
16. Hulscher, Eva (25 March 2020). "Ic-baas van UMCG: 'Het is een race tegen de klok'". RTV Noord (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
17. Mersbergen, Sander van (25 April 2020). "Twee maanden buffelen op de ic: 'De manier waarop we moesten werken heeft levens gekost'". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
18. Wijngaarden, Arend van (15 June 2020). "Meer ic-bedden in Noorden wordt lastig: er is een tekort aan verpleegkundigen". Dagblad van het Noorden (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
19. "Groningse ic-arts wil meer onderzoek naar overgewicht bij coronapatiënten: 'Dit kan geen toeval zijn'". RTL Nieuws (in Dutch). 1 April 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
20. van der Voort PH, Moser J, Zandstra DF, Muller Kobold AC, Knoester M, Calkhoven CF, Hamming I, van Meurs M (5 May 2020). "A clinical and biological framework on the role of visceral fat tissue and leptin in SARS-CoV-2 infection related respiratory failure". medRxiv. doi:10.1101/2020.04.30.20086108. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
21. "Run op resveratrol: is dit hét middel tegen corona?". RTL Nieuws (in Dutch). 4 May 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
22. "Geld voor onderzoek naar buikvet". Dagblad van het Noorden (in Dutch). 28 August 2020. p. 3.
23. Van der Laan, Mannus (26 January 2021). "Hoofd ic UMCG: 'Oudere mannen met overgewicht eerder vaccineren tegen corona'". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 January 2021.
24. "Introductie". Nationale Intensive Care Evaluatie (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
25. "Intensivist Peter van der Voort gaat de politiek in". Venticare (Press release) (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
26. "Wat is de GIC?". NVIC Academy (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
27. Voort, Peter van der (12 December 2014). Vertrouwen in de zorg (PDF) (Speech). TIAS School for Business and Society (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2020.