Matthijs Oudkerk

Matthijs Oudkerk MD, PhD, born December 2nd 1959, is Professor of Radiology at the University of Groningen, Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute for Diagnostic Accuracy (formerly of the Center of Medical Imaging NORTH EAST NETHERLANDS, NWO research Center of Exellence) and the principal investigator for Radiology of the NELSON lung cancer detection study, the Robinsca cardiovascular screening study and the 4Lungrun Horizon 2020 study. He is visiting professor of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital and the Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital.
==Education==
Matthijs Oudkerk received his bachelors and master’s degree in medicine from the University of Leiden in 1976. In 1981 he received his PhD from the University of Leiden and finished his specialisation to (interventional) radiologist as well.
==Research==
His research focuses on the heart and lungs, the development of data acquisition improvement of imaging systems and data postprocessing of AI software in cardiothoracic imaging. As principal investigator in large randomized controlled trials such as NELSON, ROBINSCA, and 4-in-the-lung-run (4ITLR), he prioritizes the early detection of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and COPD. As PI of the NELCIN-B3 trial in the Netherlands and China, the early detection of all 3 major mortality diseases of lung cancer, COPD and coronary artery disease is developed in a single run CT-acquisition.
The installation and introduction of the first continuous rotating spiral computed tomography system worldwide (1988) enabling sub-second data acquisition times, the first high power gradient MR system (1994) and electron beam tomography system (1996) in the EU was implemented in the department of prof Oudkerk. This initiated the field of non-invasive CT and MR coronary imaging with the first publications in 1998 and 2001 on coronary angiography, use of volume rendering for cardiac CT, 4D fly-through of coronary arteries on CT (CT angioscopy), MDCT coronary angiography, 4D MDCT coronary visualization and MDCT thrombus detection in ACS. He also initiated the field of calcium scoring and CT lung cancer screening in Europe and new management strategies for early lung cancer detection of the prospective multi-centre lung cancer screening study (NELSON) in 2003.
As an interventional radiologist Oudkerk developed vena cava stenting to treat the malignant vena cava superior syndrome and pulmonary angiography as a the gold standard for the detection of pulmonary embolism.
He was directly involved as (co-)author of several guidelines diagnostic management strategies for pulmonary embolism, early detection and screening of lung cancer, imaging of the myocardial ischaemic cascade and coronary artery calcium screening, and COVID-19.
==Large randomized trials==
===NELSON===
Oudkerk was involved as primary investigator of imaging in the Dutch-Belgian NELSON trial, a lung cancer screening trial in which a high-risk group of smoking 50-75 year olds participated in a low-dose CT screening for lung cancer. The trial, initiated in 2003,  was unique in the protocol used, where the earliest signs of lung cancer in the form of nodules in the lungs were assessed by growth of volume. Other trials investigating screening for lung cancer (the American National Lung Screening Trial) measured nodules by their diameter, a method proven to be more susceptible to error and less precise than volumetric measurement of the nodules. The trial was the second large randomized trial to demonstrate a reduced lung cancer mortality in a high-risk population after the NLST, showing a substantially increased reduced mortality by 24% in males and at least 39% in females.
===The Rotterdam Coronary Calcification study===
This randomized controlled trial, initiated in 1997, examined the utility of coronary artery calcification scoring by CT imaging as independent risk factor for coronary heart disease. The trial found a strong and graded association between coronary calcification and myocardial infarction. Coronary artery calcification also was shown to have a clear association with the risk of heart failure, independent of overt coronary heart disease. The study provided proof of the utility of coronary artery calcification scoring as independent risk factor for (coronary) heart disease. This study also laid the groundwork for the ROBINSCA trial.
===ROBINSCA===
Similarly, Oudkerk is involved in the large-scale randomized, controlled ROBINSCA (Risk Or Benefit IN Screening for CArdiovascular disease) trial. The trial started in 2012, with the aim  of investigating whether early detection of the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), quantified by either the classical risk score (SCORE) or a coronary artery calcium-score (CT scan), will reduce morbidity and mortality from CVD in a high-risk population. For the second group, a specialised protocol was developed for capturing and analysing the CT-scan and quantifying the calcification of the coronary arteries.
===NELCIN-B3===
Another large, randomized controlled trial Oudkerk is principal investigator of is the NELCIN-B3 trial. This trial was a continuation and expansion of the work done in the NELSON trial, improving the nodule detection and referral protocol and including two other indications highly prevalent in CT-scans of the lungs: COPD and coronary artery disease (the “big-3/B3” diseases). The NELCIN-B3 Project is a CT screening program coordinated by the University Medical Center in Groningen (The Netherlands) and the Shanghai ChangZheng Hospital (China), which started in 2017. The goal of the trial is to screen for these three indications with only one CT acquisition run. For lung cancer, the presence of growing nodules indicate a risk of the disease, for COPD the presence of emphysema, and for coronary artery disease (or cardiovascular disease) it is the presence of coronary artery calcification.
=== 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN===
Oudkerk is principal investigator of radiology of the trial 4-IN THE LUNG RUN: towards INdividually tailored INvitations, screening INtervals, and INtegrated co-morbidity reducing strategies in lung cancer screening. The multi-centre, multi-country implementation trial is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 funding programme. It was initiated to find the most cost-effective ways of implementing a lung cancer screening programme by tailoring recruitment and smoking cessation to the target individuals and personalising the screening strategy. The trial is currently aiming to start including participants in early 2021.
==Leadership==
Prof Oudkerk is founder of the European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology in 1999 and served as president of the ESCR from 2002 – 2008. Besides promoting the European radiological research community, he was Chairman of Radiology departments of DDHK Erasmus MC Rotterdam and University Medical Center Groningen.
He is involved in medical research, but also contributed to technical radiological advancements at the time, pushing forward to the development of the dual source CT systems, with the goal of increasing resolution of CT-scans while decreasing the radiation dose for the patient. He was invited as a member of the medical advisory board of Siemens AG Germany for development of the first continuous rotating spiral CT and has been part of this board until the development of the current volume multi-detector CT scanners pushing forward the need for higher temporal resolutions in CT scanning comparable with EBT.
While acting as Professor of Radiology at the University Medical Centre Groningen and the University of Groningen, Oudkerk was responsible for modernising the Dutch medical radiological training programme (HORA) in 2010.
==Honours==
Prof Oudkerk is Honorary Professor of the Medical College of Shanghai Medical University and Honorary member of the European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology (ESCR) and the Bulgarian Association of Radiology (BAR). He is founder and Honorary member of the Dutch Society for Cardiovascular Radiology. He is Fellow of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe, the International Cancer Imaging Society (ICIS) and the North American Society of Cardiac Imaging (NASCI) and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Society of Europe ( CIRSE). He received the Pavlov Medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences and awards from the RSNA, ESR and ESCR. He currently serves as reviewer for the Lancet and is Senior Editor of the British Journal of Radiology and was previously elected best reviewer by European Radiology.
==Recognition==
He has been the recipient of several prestigious research grants, such as EU Horizon 2020,. ERC advanced grant, Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands (KNAW), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), NWO/IMDI, ZonMw,KWF, the Dutch Northern Netherlands Region European Cooperation (SNN) and Dutch Heart Foundation (NHS) grants.
In 2023, Oudkerk received the James L. Mulshine, MD, International Leadership Award from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, recognizing his significant contributions to cancer prevention and research. In 2019, he was ranked among the top 10 most influential researchers in radiology.
Oudkerk has published over 555 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Thorax, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, Radiology, and The Lancet Oncology.
==Books==
He contributed to educational literature concerning radiology in general and medicine focused on indications found in the lungs and the heart.
* ·        2009: Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism.
* ·        2008: Coronary Radiology 2nd revised edition. Accessed at 21-08-2020
* ·        2004: Coronary Radiology.
* ·        1999: Pulmonary Embolism: Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment.
* ·        1997: Advances in MRI II: High-power gradient MR-imaging.
* ·        1996: Advances in MRI.
* ·        1995: Radiology in Medical Diagnostics
* ·        1994: Radiologie in der medizinischen Diagnostik.
==Supervised Theses==
As professor at the University of Groningen and during his time at the University Medical Centre of Groningen Prof Oudkerk supervised a number of PhD students, resulting in several PhD defences per year in the last few years:
* ·        Tuncay, V. (2020). Quantitative imaging in cardiovascular CT angiography.
* ·        Heerink, W. (2019). CT-guided percutaneous interventions: Improving needle placement accuracy for lung and liver procedures.
* ·        Walter, J. E. (2019). New nodules at incidence low-dose CT lung cancer screening.
* ·        Assen, van, M. (2019). Quantitative cardiac dual source CT; from morphology to function.
* ·        Vonder, M. (2018). Feasibility of cardiovascular population-based CT screening.
* ·        Shahriari, N. (2018). Flexible needle steering for computed tomography-guided interventions.
* ·        Pelgrim, G. (2017). Quantitative CT myocardial perfusion: Development of a new imaging biomarker.
* ·        Aryanto, K. Y. E. (2016). Ensuring patient privacy in image data sharing for clinical research: Design and implementation of rules and infrastructure.
* ·        Jorritsma, W. (2016). Human-computer interaction in radiology.
* ·        Dijkstra, H. (2016). Quantitative diffusion-weighted imaging in breast and liver tissue.
* ·        Viddeleer, A. R. (2016). Quantitative STIR MRI as prognostic imaging biomarker for nerve regeneration.
* ·        Heuvelmans, M. A. (2015). Optimization of nodule management in CT lung cancer screening.
* ·        den Dekker, M. (2014). Imaging biomarkers for detection of coronary artery disease.
* ·        Xie, X. (2013). CT biomarkers in lung cancer screening.
* ·        Zhao, Y. (2013). Lung nodule assessment in low-dose CT lung cancer screening: validation of detection and volumetric measurement.
* ·        Pandeya, G. D. (2012). Optimization of tumor ablation by monitoring tissue temperature via CT.
* ·        Kristanto, W. (2012). Visualization, classification and quantification of coronary atherosclerotic plaque using CT soft- and hardware phantom models.
* ·        Dorrius, M. D. (2011). New diagnostic developments to prevent unnecessary invasive procedures in breast cancer diagnostic work-up.
* ·        Westerlaan, H. E. (2011). Noninvasive imaging of intracranial aneurysms: Initial diagnosis in subarachnoid hemorrhage and follow-up after endovascular treatment.
* ·        Wang, Y. (2010). Methods and validation of nodule measurement in a lung cancer screening.
* ·        de Jonge, G. J. (2010). Multi-dimensional cardiac post-processing and visualization in dual source computed tomography.
* ·        Lubbers, D. D. (2009). MR perfusion in the detection of myocardial ischemia.
* ·        Groen, J. M. (2008). A phantom study on cardiac parameters as measured by imaging modalities.
* ·        Dikkers, R. (2008). New developments in non-invasive coronary imaging.
* ·        Xu, D. (2007). The randomised trial for lung cancer screening (NELSON): features of the screen detected nodules.
* ·        Kuijpers, T. J. A. (2005). Dobutamine stress MRI.
* ·        Ooijen, P. M. A. V. (2004). Technical and clinical evaluation of non-invasive coronary imaging using advanced three- and four-dimensional visualization techniiques.
* ·        Vliegenthart, R. (2003) Coronary calcification and risk of cardiovascular disease.
==References==
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Category:Professors