Specialization
Secondary prevention, primary prevention, cardiovascular risk management (antitrombotics, cholesterol-, and blood pressure-lowering, metbolic risk reduction, inflammation), cardiovascular care-pathways, cardio-onco, imaging.
Focus of research
Narrative CV focussed on the area of interest Preventive Cardiology
Prof. dr. Martens, cardiologist, has years of experience in the field of CardioVascular RiskManagment (CVRM) and implementation in the broadest sense of the word. He is a trustful and researchminded ‘teamcoach’ and connector with a strong feeling for responsibility, diplomacy, advisory and teaching, awarded with a Leadership Course and a board-memberschip for the Dutch CVRM guidelines, nominations as chairman of the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA) committee Prevention, the Dutch Society of Cardiology (NVVC) workinggroup medication, and an inauguration as full professor of Preventive Cardiology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center.
The Cardiovascular Center Salland (coordinated in the Deventer Hospital) has been established on his initiative with a system of transcending cardiovascular specialism (independently rated as 'best practice’).
The importance of prevention in the enviroment of the patient, at the general practisioner and in the hospitals was already noticed during his PhD which resulted in the thesis-remark: “The vascular tree needs treatment from trunk to end-sites”.
As boardmember and chairman of the Werkgroep Cardiologische centra Nederland (WCN), the research network of nearly 60 cardiovascular institutes across the Netherlands, prof. dr. Martens did intensively collaborate with the NVVC, DCVA, het Zorginstituut Nederland (ZIN), many farmaceutical industries, academic cardiovascular departments and internationally with eg the Harvard Medical School (Boston US) and PHRI (Hamilton Canada). This huge network with different partners in cardiovascular healthcare forms the base for the transition to a value based health care outcome-based model instead of a model of revenue based on saled numbers. These collaborations resulted in improved guidelines and improved implementation nationally as well as internationally already.
His research-line consists of optimizing implementation of innovations on CVRM. First some observational projects are performed (e.g. Santorini and EUROASPIRE-studies), followed by showing that optimizing implementation of CVRM is beneficial (statistically extrapolated, but also with implementing protocol-led-strategies like the PENELOPE-trilogy). At the moment he is performing a nationwide GOLDEN-study in more than 5500 patients to first time right (before discharge) optimize guideline implementation CVRM after acute coronary syndrome or coronary revascularization. At the outpatient clinic the 2-DECIDE-study calculates treatment benefits with the U-Prevent (an AI-tool) in shared decision, hopefully improve adherence of CVRM. Finally to relieve the healthcare-system the Harwacht-CVRM-project investigates telemonitoring of CVRM. All data collected will catalyze the nationwide post-ACS-registry of the Dutch Heart Registration (to copy the successful Swedeheart and EuroHeart registries in the Netherlands).