Specialization
Improving methods and tools to assess and promote work participation in occupational health
Focus of research
Focus of Research Jan Hoving: three lines
- How to improve the measurement of work participation: development of a core outcome set (COS) on work participation
- How to improve the effectiveness of work participation interventions in occupational health: assessment and analyses of trials that use different types of occupational health interventions to promote work participation
- How to improve the assessment of prognosis by physicians in the field of occupational and insurance medicine: development of methods and tools to improve prognostication by physicians
After his PhD in 2001 at the EMGO-Institute (promotor Prof. Lex Bouter) Jan Hoving worked five years in a clinical epidemiology department and later at Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, both at Monash University in Melbourne Australia for which he still holds a position as Adjunct Senior Research Fellow (unpaid, appointment till 2022: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/coeh/about/staff), in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. Since 2005 he is working as an assistant professor at the Coronel Institute of Occupational Health and at the research center for Insurance Medicine (www.KCVG.nl).
Jan Hoving has a keen interest in research methodology which is reflected by publications in the past on research methods to include systematic review methods (Verbeek et al, 2012), measurement and Core Outcome Set development (Hoving et al, 2018), guideline development and evidence updates (on several conditions that impact work participation) and methods to assess the inter-rater agreement in evaluation of disability (Barth et al, 2017).
Since working in the Coronel Institute he has been a project leader and co-promotor of five PhD students (currently two), including a PhD thesis (Rob Kok) in which Evidence Based Medicine was evaluated within the field of Insurance Medicine in the Netherlands which was awarded the prize for best PhD thesis between 2005-2015 by the Research Center for Insurance Medicine.
Jan Hoving obtained +300.000 Euro in funding for teaching Evidence Based Medicine between 2008 and 2018, coordinating and teaching yearly 5-day EBM courses and subsequent yearly EBM refresher days for Dutch Insurance Physicians. In recent years he wrote two PhD proposals which progress the focus of his research line: (1) a PhD project to develop a Core Outcome Set on Work Participation (start 2018), and (2) a PhD project to improve prognostication of work participation by physicians working in the field of insurance medicine (start 2018: http://www.comet-initiative.org/studies/details/1195).
Jan Hoving’s interest in Cochrane started early in his career, and after having (co-) authored several Cochrane systematic reviews on musculoskeletal disorders (neck pain, low back pain, inflammatory arthritis) he joined Cochrane Insurance Medicine field and is now leading this field in the Netherlands (http://insuremed.cochrane.org/).
In 2019, Cochrane granted the Coronel Institute of Occupational Health the opportunity to become the Amsterdam Satellite of Cochrane Work. An inaugural symposium of the Amsterdam Satellite of Cochrane Work will be held on Friday September 6th 2019 with the title “How to improve the evidence for work participation?” (https://work.cochrane.org/satellite). Jan Hoving is the Satellite director and Satellite Coordinating Editor (0.2 Fte). The application to Cochrane to become an Amsterdam Satellite was written by Jan Hoving and specifically targets this PI application and includes deliverables such as previously mentioned Core Outcome Set on Work participation and several meta-reviews/systematic reviews to study the methods and effectiveness of work participation interventions in occupational health trials (see Focus of Research line nr 2).
Given the opportunities for international collaboration within Cochrane and previous employers (in both the Netherlands and Australia) Jan has developed strong connections with several international research groups (via projects such as Core Outcome Set development, Cochrane Reviews, methods papers). Jan Hoving successfully applied for a Spinoza chair (Spinoza Leerstoel) position by Professor Regina Kunz (University of Basel) for which he hosted and organized a series of presentations and workshops at the AMC in Oktober 2018, thus strengthening the existing international collaboration within Evidence Based Insurance Medicine and Cochrane Insurance Medicine (see https://www.amsterdamresearch.org/web/public-health/events-1/public-health-events/spinoza-lecture-by-prof.-regina-kunz.htm).