Rehabilitation Medicine

This department is part of the Faculty of Health, Life Sciences and Medicine and our research is done in close collaboration with the Adelante Centre of Expertise in Rehabilitation and Audiology. Our research is coordinated within the research program Rehabilitation Medicine in the research school CAPHRI.

The mission of the program is to improve evidence based practice in rehabilitation medicine. The research primarily focuses on the improvement and evaluation of diagnosis, treatment and care after discharge of patients who experience limitations in their level of activities and participation. The program will also facilitate the implementation and innovations of care, on the basis of these research results, in close collaboration with Adelante and the Maastricht University Medical Centre.

Focus

The focus of research is on the three top clinical care diagnoses/problems identified by the department of rehabilitation medicine at the Maastricht UMC+ and Adelante:

• chronic musculoskeletal pain

• arm-hand functioning (adults and children)

• complex traumatology, more specific acquired brain damage

Topics

The research is primarily of clinical origin, covering diagnosis, prognosis, moderation, mediation and outcome measures, with a special emphasis on performance and real life activities and participation. This also includes clinimetrics. 

The second major topic is improving the (cost) effectiveness of treatments and changes in the care chain. 
And finally, theory-based translational research will be applied in order to develop new treatments or new forms.