Four Amsterdam UMC researchers have been awarded a personal research Dekker grant from the Dutch Heart Foundation. The Dekker grants are awarded annually to talented scientists. They received in total € 1.7 million to set up or expand their own line of research in the cardiovascular field in the coming years. One of the laureates is APH researcher Ralf Harskamp.

The Dekker grants are being awarded for the 36th time this year. Ten talented researchers received a Dekker grant, of which four are from Amsterdam UMC.

Ralf Harskamp (Department of General Practice, Amsterdam UMC) was awarded a Senior Clinical Scientist Dekker grant for his research on acute chest pain in general practice. Ralf Harskamp, general practitioner and senior researcher, wants to help GPs better predict whether someone with chest pain has a heart attack. He will do this with the help of a quick blood test and risk score at GP practices in several regions. This will allow GPs to quickly refer the right people to hospital. Harskamp: "I hope that the results of the blood test and the risk score will enable GPs to better assess whether or not someone has an acute heart problem. In this way we can offer patients more certainty in the future. Only the people who need rapid cardiac care will then be urgently referred for treatment in the hospital."

Visit the Heart Foundation website for more information regarding the awarded projects.