Ten years of building the rehabilitation care of tomorrow

The Living Lab originated in 2016 from a simple idea: rehabilitation medicine was present at Adelante, and UM, through its Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), was strong in research and education. "We wanted to bring academia to the field of rehabilitation medicine," Huijnen explains. "By bringing together the expertise of UM and Adelante, we could renew rehabilitation medicine in our region and give students the chance to get to know the rehabilitation center." Verbunt adds: "The LLR was meant to become a place where research and innovation could really start bubbling."

The concept of a Living Lab already existed elsewhere, for instance in elderly care, where UM was already collaborating with partners in healthcare and education. But for rehabilitation medicine, it still had to get started. The idea of bringing research, education, and clinical practice closely together outside a hospital setting was new for the field. The starting point was deliberately local: UM with CAPHRI and Adelante. Later Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Maastricht UMC+, and this past year, Revant, joined. With the addition of Revant, a care provider in West Brabant and Zeeland, the LLR's reach grew from just Limburg to a broader presence across the south of the Netherlands.

Over ten years, expertise centers have been formed around the topics of pediatric rehabilitation, rehabilitation for neurological conditions, pain and rehabilitation, and rehabilitation and tinnitus. These are places where care, research, and education come together. Various projects demonstrate that the Living Lab delivers direct impact in healthcare. Examples include the Healthy Living with Brain Injury in Limburg (GHLIM) project, aimed at promoting healthy living for people with brain injury in Limburg, and the pain rehabilitation network, which connected primary and secondary care rehabilitation services to enable tailored care. Thanks to collaboration between multiple knowledge institutions and healthcare organizations, setting up these kinds of projects that link research and care has also become easier. "We're able to move much faster, and jointly apply for grants for regional projects," Verbunt explains.

They're also proud of the energy within the LLR itself. Students from the university and the university of applied sciences do internships at the rehabilitation centers and work together on innovations. The Living Lab Rehabilitation is a concrete example of this. "More and more students are choosing an internship in rehabilitation care," says Huijnen. "They're immediately linked up with the Living Lab, to learn how to work in a multidisciplinary way."

Another important recent milestone is the position paper Rehabilitation 2030 South Limburg. The document, drawn up across all pathways in the rehabilitation sector, outlines a shared vision for how rehabilitation in the region should be organized in the years ahead. The document represents the Limburg variant of the World Health Organization's World Rehabilitation Alliance vision, which UM has been a member of since 2023. "We're nowhere near finished," says Verbunt, "but we're quite proud of where we stand now." Multiple organizations and partnerships have committed to further developing and regionally implementing the vision set out in the position paper.

For the years ahead, Verbunt and Huijnen see plenty of opportunities, but also clear challenges. One of the most important opportunities is strengthening academic rehabilitation medicine in the region. This means healthcare professionals starting activation and rehabilitation early during hospital admission for people with highly complex health problems. "A lot of innovation can happen in that early phase," says Verbunt. "By starting function-focused guidance immediately after, or even before, surgery or treatment, you prevent complications, shorten the length of stay, and people can go home sooner or move on to care partners in the region. This isn't just better for patients; it also reduces pressure on the healthcare system."

Another challenge is broadening into primary care and the social domain. "We want to make rehabilitation an integral part of the healthcare landscape," says Verbunt, "so that people get the right support, as close to home as possible, and can take part in society again."

The ambition isn't to conquer the whole of the Netherlands, but rather to keep expanding in the regions where the LLR already operates: reaching more people, from specialized rehabilitation to primary care and elderly care, and working together from a shared vision toward better functioning in the region.

Ten years after its founding, the LLR stands strong. And the next ten years start now!

Want to know more about LLR and rehabilitation care? Read about Ivan Huijnen's research into a new perspective on rehabilitation care.

Text and photo: Liline Fermin

Did you enjoy reading this article? Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for more.