University of Amsterdam Medical Centre

Our Research 

Dr. den Braver is an assistant professor in epidemiology and public health with expertise on upstream determinants of lifestyle and non-communicable disease. During her PhD, she generated evidence on the role of the built environment with regard to lifestyle behaviours and T2D incidence, and during her postdoc she proceeded to translate this evidence toward policy implementation. In the PEN project (JPI-HDHL), she contributed to the development of the original PA-EPI, mainly to the domain of public education. Furthermore, Dr. den Braver is involved in policy evaluation of traffic policies (lower speed limits) in Dutch cities, closely collaborating with the municipality, in an awarded Vital Cities grant (together with Erasmus University). In her research line, she uses novel methodologies (such as the PA-EPI) to identify evidence and leverage points for creating healthy environments with policy.

Fleur Heuvelman is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, department of Epidemiology and Data Science. She wil be doing het PhD within the IMPAQT project. Her PhD project focuses on the impact of public policies on health and healthy lifestyles, with special attention to lower socioeconomic populations. Last year Fleur applied the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index (PA-EPI) in the Dutch context.  

Our IMPAQT team 

The Department of Epidemiology and Data Science possesses the epidemiological, health, and biostatistical expertise to train (future) physicians and researchers within the VUmc and assist them in solving methodological problems. Our research group specifically focuses on lifestyle and chronic disease epidemiology, with attention to the upstream determinants of health behaviours and chronic diseases, including the impact of public policies.