J. (Jurjen) van der Schans

In 2017, Jurjen earned his PhD from the Department of Pharmaco-Therapy, -Epidemiology, and -Economics. His research, conducted under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Eelko Hak (Pharmacoepidemiology), Prof. Dr. Pieter Hoekstra (Pediatric Psychiatry), and Dr. Tjalling de Vries (Pediatric Allergology), focused on psychotropic medication use in vulnerable patient populations. After his PhD he was employed as a lecturer at the department of Health Technology and Services Research, University of Twente. In 2017 the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) awarded Jurjen the Van Leersum grant, assigned to promising young researchers in the fields of neurology, radiology and pharmacology. The grant enabled him to conduct research abroad at the University of Otago, New Zealand, performing an international comparison of polypharmacy in children and adolescents with ADHD.

As of 2019 Jurjen is working as a researcher at the Global Health unit, University Medical Center Groningen, and at the department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen. As the leader of the Value, Affordability & Sustainability (VALUE) research programme, Jurjen is dedicated to maximizing the impact and cost-effectiveness of health interventions by generating and applying evidence to guide informed decision-making. His research emphasizes global health and preventive health interventions, addressing both medical and non-medical costs to inform sustainable health policies on a regional and global level.

His interdisciplinary work spans chronic disease management, infectious disease prevention, and public health policy collaborating closely with experts in clinical practice, epidemiology, and public health. With a background in medical pharmaceutical sciences, epidemiology, and health economics, he has extensive experience conducting clinical trials, observational studies, and long-term cost-effectiveness evaluations.  Committed to improving health systems' sustainability, Jurjen links grassroots prevention efforts with global health strategies, exemplified by his current work in the FreshAir4Life project to combat smoking and air pollution among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. Over the past years, Jurjen has been involved in numerous public health initiatives and research consortia across countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Uganda, and Ethiopia. These projects have influenced national and international policies on topics like diabetes prevention, HPV screening, and adult immunization.