Dekker grant for Jozine ter Maaten
Jozine ter Maaten receives Dekker grant to improve the treatment of patients with acute heart failure.
During the coronaproof Dekker grant roadshow, eleven researchers officially received their Dekker grant, totalling to €3.3 million. Jozine ter Maaten received the Clinical Scientist grant, worth €240.000. Instead of inviting the researchers for a festive afternoon with a big crowd, the Dutch Heart Foundation visited the researchers in their own hospital with a certificate, flowers, and a video message from the director of the Dutch Heart Foundation. It was a surprise for Jozine; she was asked not to book any appointments that day, but she didn’t know that the Dutch Heart Foundation would visit her with a personal “congratulations” package. She thought it was a nice way of celebrating this milestone given the current circumstances.
The Dekker grants are research grants which are rewarded to talented scientists on an annual basis. With her grant, Jozine will study a novel approach to treatment in patients with acute heart failure. In these patients fluid accumulation leads to dyspnea, edema and ultimately hospitalization for acute heart failure. At the moment, there is only one available therapy for acute heart failure, namely the administration of loop diuretics, and a great number of patients do not respond adequately to this therapy. By assessing urinary sodium at specific time points starting shortly after initiation of loop diuretic therapy, Jozine will assess response to therapy and adjust therapy if necessary. The aim of this study is to improve decongestion and ultimately outcomes in these severely diseased patients.
