Dr. Stijn Blot
Biography
Stijn graduated as nurse, and continued his studies with a master degree and a PhD. He is a research professor at Ghent University with a main, but not exclusive, focus on prevention and clinical epidemiology of healthcare-associated complications in critically ill patients such as life threatening infections (sepsis) and pressure ulcers. He has a unique curriculum through his varied background combining nursing and mid wifery, nursing sciences, a post academic teaching degree, and a PhD in medical sciences. This exceptional background allows bridging distinct disciplines and interpreting clinical data in an exclusive way. Through epidemiological insights awareness for specific nosocomial hazards is raised or new hypotheses generated. Stijn prefers proposing suggestions to optimize processes of care that are evidence based. If solid scientific data are lacking, however, recommendations are to be proposed on basis of current clinical insights and common sense. Over the past 15 years his multidisciplinary approach resulted in a substantial number of scientific publications in top9ranking journals in a broad variety of ‘Web of Science’ subject categories (critical care, infectious diseases, microbiology, pharmacology, respiratory system, surgery, pediatrics, nursing, …). Stijn is a frequent speaker at the international stage where he always brings straightforward messages, carefully finetuned to the background of the target audience. Finally, he succeeded to consolidate a solid reputation in intensive care research and established a firm international network of collaborators encompassing nurses, intensivists, ID specialists, physiotherapists, dental surgeons, clinical pharmacologists and microbiologists. Since 2014 he is also Honorary professor at the Burns Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Stijn is Chair of the section on Nursing and Allied Health Care Professionals of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. He received many clinical and scientific prize awards, the last being the “Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Award, 2012” for outstanding achievements i care nursing. Al Qassim, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 5, 2012.