History
The ILD Centre of Excellence is part of St. Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. In addition to patient care and training of specialists (doctors and nurses), the centre has a strong tradition in scientific research.
The ILD Centre of Excellence was founded in 2005 by prof. dr. Jules van den Bosch, MD PhD and prof. dr. Jan C. Grutters, MD PhD. At present the research group is headed by prof. dr. Jan C. Grutters, MD PhD, and dr. Coline van Moorsel, PhD. Prof. dr. Jan C. Grutters also works as a lung physician at the St. Antonius Hospital and the University Medical Centre Utrecht, where he takes part in the lung transplantation program.
The close vicinity to the physician's daily clinical practice secures that the research is performed with a clinically well phenotyped group of patients. Moreover, this setting ensures that research questions arise from clinically and biologically relevant observations. It also enables the fast implementation of study results in clinical practice.