Biography

Frank Visseren (1965) is Internist, Epidemiologist and Professor in Vascular Medicine at the University Medical Center in Utrecht. He is head of the Department of Vascular Medicine and responsible for patient care, research, and teaching. The Department of Vascular Medicine at the UMC Utrecht consists of Internists, Fellows, Research Nurses and PhD students. His main research interest is in the field of insulin resistance and vascular diseases and consists of basic, translational and epidemiologic research covering etiology, therapy, prognosis and diagnosis. There is a focus on (visceral) adipose tissue and development of atherosclerosis, atherotrombosis and diabetes. An other research focus is on translating the results of large clinical trials to invidivual patients, in collaboration with (inter)national partners. He is (co-)author of over 300 publications and associate editor of 2 scientific journals. The GCP certified research unit of the Department of Vascular Medicine performs state-of-the-art non-invasive vascular imaging tests including FMD, FBF, PWV, fingertip plethysmography, IMT and HRV. There is broad experience with industry-sponsored clinical trials in the field of Vascular Medicine, Cardiology and Diabetology and he also serves as sponsor of multi-national investigator initiated studies. He is the clinical director of the Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease (SMART) cohort at the UMC Utrecht. This is a cohort with over 13,000 patients with vascular diseases and/or type 2 diabetes or severe hypertension or familial hyperlipidemia, growing with 800 patients annually, for etiologic, prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic research. He was (co-)supervisor of 30 thesis and currently involved in the supervision of 11  PhD students.

The clinical work of the Department of Vascular Medicine is concentrated around patients at high risk for the development of cardiovascular diseases including patients with Familial Hypercholesterolemia, patients with therapy-resistant hypertension and patients with diabetes and vascular disease. He strongly believes in a multidisciplinary, patient-centered approach in the treatment of patients at high risk for the development of (new) vascular diseases.

Teaching covers first year Medical Students to clinical specialty training in Vascular Medicine. He is member of the Concilium Medicinae Internae and chairman of the section Vascular Medicine of the Dutch Internal Medicine Society.