Internal Medicine in Maastricht UMC+
Coen Stehouwer, Harry Hillen
On December 30, 1982 the Boards of St. Annadal Hospital,
intensively involved in the continuous innovation and improvement
of the University Maastricht, of its Faculty of Medicine and
of the educational program. Two internists, Bos and Kooman, are
the internists working in the hospital signed the agreement
graduates from the University Maastricht and are now professors
on making the department of internal medicine an academic
dedicated to research and innovation of the medical education.
one. Now, after the relatively short period of 32 years, we
Within the internal medicine in Maastricht 10 residencies have
see a department of internal medicine with its own profile,
been formed: general internal medicine, acute internal medicine,
in which the core academic tasks of teaching, research
endocrinology, haematology, infectiology, clinical immunology and
and patient care have been developed in a balanced way
allergology, nephrology, medical oncology, geriatric medicine, the
and according to the principles of the Maastricht School
vascular medicine, rheumatology and gastroenterology. Therefore
of Internal Medicine. Three features characterize the
the Maastricht School of Internal Medicine can offer one of the
profile of this School. Firstly, “Unity in Diversity” from the
most complete educations in internal medicine in the Netherlands.
start has been an important theme that was realized by
Both the pregraduate and postgraduate education take advantage
integrating all subspecialties of the internal medicine as
of the availability of so many different competencies within the
sections of the overarching internal medicine. Secondly,
department of internal medicine. In the thirty-two years since the
the formally recognized specialty “internal medicine” has
start of the academic department, 220 internists, rheumatologists
formed from the beginning a harmonious organizational unit
and gastroenterologists have completed their postgraduate
with three other formal medical specialties: rheumatology,
training in Maastricht. The societal impact thereof is apparent
gastroenterology and geriatrics. They operate in parallel
from the key positions that these alumni occupy in the hospitals
to the subspecialties of internal medicine and played an
of the South-Eastern part of the Netherlands. Medical doctors
essential role in the development of the department. Finally,
specializing in internal medicine, rheumatology or gastroenterology
the department has made sure that a careful balance was
have always aspired to combine their clinical training with scientific
achieved between the key tasks of problem-based teaching
research. The chronological overview of the covers of the 250 PhD
of internal medicine, theme-centered multidisciplinary
theses originating in the department of internal medicine shows
research and integral academic patient care. As a
that 60 of these were prepared by MD’s before, during or after
consequence of these three features, the Maastricht
their postgraduate training. The department has continuously
department of internal medicine has become a broadly
contributed to the innovation of the postgraduate curriculum
based key department for the Maastricht University Medical
in internal medicine within and outside the Dutch Society of
Center, MUMC+.
Internists. The importance that the department attributes to this is
underscored by the mandate of professor Koopmans: development
Teaching and education
A primary reason for the existence of an academic department
of internal medicine is teaching medical students and training
of teaching and education in general internal medicine.
Research
internists. For the Maastricht School of Internal Medicine, which
In contrast to most Dutch academic departments of internal
is embedded in a university that has (innovation of) teaching
medicine, research is almost always embedded in the research
as its trademark, this is even more the case. Presently, almost
themes and research schools of the Faculty of Health, Medicine
all internists, rheumatologists and gastroenterologists of the
and Life Sciences. This embedding has resulted in theme-
department of internal medicine are involved in the bachelor
centered and multidisciplinary research with much emphasis on
and master courses of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life
the combination preclinical, translational and clinical research.
Sciences. In total this amounts to 11 full time equivalents. The
As described in chapter 12 of this book, the research program
teaching of internal medicine occurs in small groups, is based
of the internal medicine group has resulted not only in a large
on clinical problems and is strongly student-oriented. This is
number of international publications, but also in publications that
exemplified by the medical teaching in the third year of the
are read, as demonstrated by the bibliometric impact factor. To
bachelor program. During the whole year internists supervise
underscore this, we have included a list of 5 top publications of
young third year students in the course of diversified contacts with
each section of the department in the corresponding chapter.
182 patients in the outpatient clinics. The staff of the department is
This shows that the internal medicine group publishes regularly in