PARTNERS AND TEAM MEMBERS

Prof. Gert Kwakkel is principal investigator and coordinator of the Amsterdam arm of the Rescue project. Since 2002, he has been senior researcher at the rehabilitation centre de Hoogstraat in Utrecht, and is one of the senior researchers at the department of rehabilitation in the Rudolf Magnus Institute at the University Medical centre Utrecht. In addition, he is a lecturer (0.2 fte) at the Faculty of Human Movement Science where he educates research methods en systematic reviews.

Gert started his career as a physiotherapist in the department Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam in 1982. Subsequently, he studied Human Movement Science at the Vrije Universiteit from 1989 to 1993. After receiving a grant from the Dutch Heart Association in 1994, he started as a researcher in the Department Physical Therapy at the Vrije Universiteit. The aim of his doctoral research was to investigate the effects of intensity of upper and lower limb training after stroke. Outcomes of this randomized clinical trial are published in different key Journals in the field of Neurology and Rehabilitation. He received his PhD in 1998. Besides his interest in longitudinal studies with repeated measurements, he conducted several systematic reviews in the field of Stroke, Parkinsons’ Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, type I. He participated as several national and international steering committees for developing guidelines on stroke and received in 2002 a grant from the Dutch Royal Society to write stroke guidelines for physical therapists in the Netherlands. At this moment he is investigating prognosis of the upper limb after stroke as well the impact of brain plasticity on recovery of dexterity. Therefore, he collaborates with department Neurology and Neuroradiology of university of Utrecht using functional MRI and TMS for measuring changes in cerebral activation patterns after stroke.

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