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Uyên Châu Nguyên wins UM Dissertation Prize 2025

Uyên Châu Nguyên wins UM Dissertation Prize 2025

29 January 2026

During the Dies Natalis of Maastricht University, Uyên Châu Nguyên received the UM Dissertation Prize 2025.

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Global research network launched to study menopause and heart health

Global research network launched to study menopause and heart health

20 January 2026

Ten international health research funders, including the Dutch Heart Foundation, are investing $10 million in a new global research network to improve early prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. The initiative focuses on understanding how menopause affects heart health and how early intervention can reduce risk.

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Carim Maastricht
Carim Maastricht

Harry Crijns

Professor

Harry Crijns is professor and chair of Cardiology and board member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) at Maastricht UMC+. He studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and was trained in cardiology and electrophysiology in Groningen and Maastricht. He is a Fellow of the ESC and a past board member of the EHRA. He is also past Chair of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology. He served on several guidelines committees for the management of AF. Currently he is the chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Dutch Heart Foundation.

His primary research focus continues to be atrial fibrillation (AF). He founded the RACE trials in the Netherlands and led the Euro Heart Survey on AF (ESC). He has established his reputation by introducing innovative concepts for diagnosis and treatment of AF by showing that - quite contrary to longstanding beliefs - electrical management does not change prognosis. This revolutionised management of the arrhythmia worldwide with the effect that major interventions like electrical cardioversion, catheter ablation and antiarrhythmic drug therapy are applied in a much more personalized fashion.

Subsequently his group showed that rate control in AF can be individualized thereby removing the previously used strict heart rate targets from the international guidelines. He also performed the Euro Heart Survey on AF and made many contributions to the field of stroke management in AF, such as the construction of well-recognised AF specific risk stratification scores for AF progression (HATCH), ischemic stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc) and major bleeding (HAS-BLED). These scores have practically conquered the medical AF community and improved patient care whilst boosting new clinical research throughout the world.

His research group now focusses on recent-onset AF, hybrid AF ablation, upstream therapy and vascular mechanisms for AF progression and stroke in idiopathic atrial fibrillation. He is (co-)author on over 650 scientific articles, with 56,677 citations and Hirsch-index of 100.

Harry-crijns

Department of Cardiology
P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht 
PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht


  • 2026
    • Cai, M., Barrios-Espinosa, C., Rienstra, M., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Schotten, U., & Heijman, J. (2026). Optimizing atrial fibrillation management using a novel patient-level computational model. Med, 7(1), Article 100896. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medj.2025.100896
    • Svennberg, E., Freedman, B., Andrade, J. G., Anselmino, M., Biton, Y., Boriani, G., Brandes, A., Buckley, C. M., Cameron, A., Clua-Espuny, J. L., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Diederichsen, S. Z., Doehner, W., Dominguez, H., Duncker, D., Fauchier, L., Glotzer, T., Guo, Y. S., Haeusler, K. G., ... Et al. (2026). Recent-onset atrial fibrillation: challenges and opportunities. European Heart Journal, 47(2), 170-187. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf478
  • 2025
    • van de Kar, M. R. D., van Brakel, T. J., Houterman, S., de Heer, L. M., Daeter, E. J., van't Veer, M., van Veghel, D., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Dekker, L. R. C., Otterspoor, L. C., & Netherlands Heart Registration (2025). Real-world anticoagulant use and clinical outcomes in postoperative atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass grafting: a nationwide practice-based cohort from The Netherlands Heart Registration. European heart journal - Quality of care & clinical outcomes, Article qcaf124. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaf124
    • Sohns, C., Moersdorf, M., Marrouche, N. F., Costard-Jaeckle, A., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Bergau, L., Fox, H., Hindricks, G., Dagres, N., Sossalla, S., Schramm, R., Fink, T., Hamriti, M. E., Sciacca, V., Didenko, M., Konietschke, F., Rudolph, V., Gummert, J., Tijssen, J. G. P., ... CASTLE HTx Investigators (2025). Three-Year Outcomes of Catheter Ablation in Patients With End-Stage Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation. Circulation, 152(15), 1118-1121. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.075787
    • Koolwijk, J., van de Kar, M., van der Woude, B. A., van 't Veer, M., de Grooth, H. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Dekker, L. R. C., Bouwman, R. A., Cremer, O. L., de Bie, A. J. R., & Otterspoor, L. C. (2025). Correction to: Anticoagulation and thromboembolic risk in critically ill patients with trigger-induced atrial fibrillation-A systematic review and meta-analysis. Netherlands Heart Journal, 33(10), 327-329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-025-01991-y
    • Zeemering, S., Borof, K., Schotten, U., Obergassel, J., Camm, A. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Eckardt, L., Fabritz, L., Goette, A., Habibi, Z., Heijman, J., Hermans, B. J. M., Lemoine, M. D., Magnussen, C., Metzner, A., Rillig, A., Schnabel, R. B., Schuijt, E., Suling, A., ... Kirchhof, P. (2025). Estimated atrial fibrillation burden on early rhythm-control and cardiovascular events in the EAST-AFNET 4 trial. EClinicalMedicine, 88, Article 103457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103457
    • Goette, A., Lemoine, M. D., Borof, K., Schotten, U., Breithardt, G., Camm, A. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Eckardt, L., Metzner, A., Willems, S., Zapf, A., Schnabel, R. B., Fabritz, L., & Kirchhof, P. (2025). Prevalence and severity of atrial cardiomyopathy in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation and stroke risk factors and its association with early rhythm control: a secondary analysis of EAST-AFNET 4. EP Europace, 27(10), Article euaf256. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaf256
    • Fink, T., Moersdorf, M., Costard-Jaeckle, A., Marrouche, N. F., Sciacca, V., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Fox, H., Hindricks, G., Dagres, N., Sossalla, S., Schramm, R., El Hamriti, M., Bergau, L., Didenko, M., Konietschke, F., Rudolph, V., Gummert, J., Tijssen, J. G. P., Sommer, P., ... CASTLE HTx Investigators (2025). Sex and Treatment Outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation in End-Stage Heart Failure: Insights From CASTLE-HTx. JACC: Heart Failure, 13(10), Article 102608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2025.102608
    • Obergassel, J., Suling, A., Borof, K., Camm, A. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Eckardt, L., Fabritz, L., Goette, A., Jensen, M., Lemoine, M. D., Magnussen, C., Metzner, A., Rillig, A., Schotten, U., Schnabel, R., Thomalla, G., Vardas, P., Wakili, R., Willems, S., ... Schrage, B. (2025). Short-term benefit of early rhythm control for atrial fibrillation: the EAST-AFNET 4 trial. European Heart Journal, 46(37), 3663-3666. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf397
    • Koolwijk, J., van de Kar, M., van der Woude, B. A., van 't Veer, M., de Grooth, H.-J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Dekker, L. R. C., Bouwman, R. A., Cremer, O. L., de Bie, A. J. R., & Otterspoor, L. C. (2025). Anticoagulation and thromboembolic risk in critically ill patients with trigger-induced atrial fibrillation-A systematic review and meta-analysis. Netherlands Heart Journal, 33(10), 290-298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-025-01978-9
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