2 February 2012:
Wim participated today in the network meeting in North Limburg to discuss (technological) innovations in living and care arrangements for (frail) old citizens. He presented an introductory paper 'Het wenkend perspectief'. The meeting was attended by representatives of municipalities, by technological innovators, managers of care organisations, and representatives of patient groups and industry.

23 January 2012:
For the next 12 months Wim is appointed as visiting professor and research advisor at the Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest, Romania.

20 January 2012:
We have become aunt and uncle once more. Gabi and Katelina have a daughter: Daria!Congratulations and welcome Daria!

7 January 2012:
Today on Saint John's day we commemorate Ion Roventa and visited his grave at Craiova's beautifull cemetery.

24 December 2011:
Christmas Greetings

La multi ani.

15 December 2011:
Care organisations for elderly are interested to develop innovative, qualitative care programme for care of persons with dementia. Wim is invited to contribute to such programme by writing an overview of recent breakthroughs in science and their meaning for the practice of care.

6 December 2011:
The Board of SOAZ RACE, we are member of, had its biannual meeting in The Hague. The Board decided to continue with the projects on palliative care (Romania) and on evaluation of goalsetting in rehabilitation (Switzerland). Also the Board approved two projects to stimulate education programmes to improve quality of care and research in cooperation with Titu Maiorescu.

1 December 2011:
The article 'Experienced discrimination among European old citizens' is published now in the European Journal of Ageing. It is published (free access) on line a few days before. See http://www.springerlink.com/content/d8627l6k764724j1/fulltext.pdf

22 November 2011:
Two on-line courses for physicians are accredited now and two are under way in the online continuing medical education website, created by Marinela.

20 November 2011:
Today we enjoyed an excellent performance of Opera Zuid! The opera Katja Kabanova of Leos Janacek is really a dramatic story with music underlining the dramatic depth, with a sensitive conductor and with singers acting well. Well done.

10 November 2011:
Six months ago friends adviced us to connect to 'social media'. Marinela has over 1000 friends on Face book and over 400 connections on Linked in. Wim has over 400 connections now on Linked in

25 October 2011:
Marinela has developed on-line tests in biology (anatomy and physiology of mankind) for students in high school and university. The tests help students to prepare for their exams. It is in Romanian; for details see: http://www.edmed.ro.

23 October 2011:
Thiessen Maastricht invited us for a wine tasting. Good variety of nice wines and a good atmosphere. After tasting we wondered how our new wine was doing, so another tasting. The result: promising an excellent wine 2011. Unfortunately the quantity is much less this year.

17 October 2011:
A manuscript 'Experienced discrimination among European old citizens' is accepted for publication in the European Journal of Ageing. Wim wrote this article, together with Marc van Santvoort, analysing ESS data 2008.

14 October 2011:
Vol 4, nr 4 of PALIAŢIA- Journal of Palliative Care is now on-line, ww.paliatia.eu This isue brings the abstracts of an interesting conference "Sharing & Networking", held in Bucharest, Romania, paying attention to the 'state of the art' of palliative care in Central-eastern, former communist countries.

9 October 2011:
A very busy week(end) with meetings, writings articles, revising manuscripts, drafting proposals for research and conferences, and in between we had to harvest our grapes. We had to since blackbirds and wasps were stealing more than they left. The result in quantity is poor: 3 litres red and 10 litres white wine. Now we have to be patient to wait for the quality.

1 October 2011:
A weekend in Passau with summer weather in October is breathtaking. At night the three rivers bring mist. The churches, towers and fortress start to shine in the sun around nine in the morning. The glass museum is a place to visit, including the hotel 'Wilder Mann'. We stayed in the 'Sissy room'; Marinela slept in her bed.

27 September 2011:
The newspaper 'De krant van Limburg' published an interview with Wim on ageism. October 1st is the day of the elderly. The newspaper used that occasion to report on the growing ageism in Europe, including the Netherlands.

22 September 2011:
The Association of GPs in Cluj region hold its annual conference. Wim organised a workshop on prevention programmes for elderly in primary health care. The conference was held in a brand new hotel 'Italia'.

17 September 2011:
Speyer is one of the places to be this year. The cathedrals' consecration was 950 years ago and the coronation of Henry V as emperor 900 years ago. After the Altstadt and museum it is nice to relax at the Rhine river or in a Biergarten.

12 September 2011:
Two articles of the PhD study, which Wim supervises, are published in international journals (Disability & Rehabilitation, Prosthetics & Orthotics International). The study is on quality of life in lower limb amputees in India.

9-10 September 2011:
A weekend in the north of the Netherlands is always special. This time we stayed in Zuidlaren meeting with colleagues of the university and visiting friends.

1 September 2011:
In the coming week two former co-workers of Wim are going to retire (more or less). It means yourself are growing old. Thank you Thijs and Berry.

27 August 2011:
A special day when we have time to diner together with the family (see Personal).

14 August 2011:
Wim is invited as Faculty member at the Second International Congress on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, to be held in India 25-29 February 2012 (ICGGM 2012).

12 August 2011:
On invitation, Wim has written an article, entitled 'Value reorientation and intergenerational conflicts in ageing societies.' for the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.

2 August 2011:
A nice summer day - at last - offering the opportunity to do the gardening we love. Finally we finished the pruning of conifers.The grandchildren love the vegetable garden (see Personal).

22 July 2011:
Marinela and Wim are invited to organise a workshop on 'Prevention in healthy and frail old' during a conference in Cluj, Romania in September.

7 July 2011:
Ramon Daniëls successfully defended today his PhD study 'Frail elderly. Identification and disability prevention in primary care.' It is the 58st 'doctor' Wim has supervised.

24 June 2011:
Marinela has been asked to write a new course on Parkinson disease for Continuous Medical Education on line.

18 June 2011:
Wim had a pleasant and fruitful meeting in Bad Ragaz with two Swiss PhD students, studying the short and long term effects of goal setting in stroke rehabilitation patients on quality of life and care givers' burden. The study is planned to be finished by the end of this year.

11 June 2011:
BioMedfLib informed us that our article Dumitrescu L, van den Heuvel-Olaroiu M, van den Heuvel WJ: Changes in symptoms and pain intensity of cancer patients after enrollment in palliative care at home. published in 2007 is the top read and cited article published in the domain of ‘Pain and symptoms control’.

1 June 2011:

Yesterday the father of Marinela, Ion Roventa, died unexpectedly. We are deeply touched and sad. We will misss his warmth, his kindness and his trust in human beings.The funeral is on Thursday 2 June 2011.

21 May 2011:
Birthdays in the family these weeks were an excellent reasons to meet with sisters and brothers. Lamber and Toos invited us all in Sint Oedenrode. We enjoyed talking, eating. laughing.........being together. (For a family picture see under Personal).

19 May 2011:
Medisch Contact, nr 20, published our letter 'Make Quality Institute superfluous'. The letter is a positive reaction to the interview of Marcel Daniëls, chair of the Quality Council of the Dutch Association of Medical Clinical Specialists. The interview indicates a real and basic interest to improve quality of medical care by clinical doctors, contrary to the quality systems promoted by the Dutch government.

Comments

Marinela en Wim write colums and comments on various subjects, related with health care. Some are in Dutch, other in Romanian. Most of the Romanian ones are published in Viata Medicala (see Links: www.vmr.ro). Dutch ones include:

- Kwaliteitsinstituut overbodig maken. (Medisch Contact 2011)

- Indicatoren voor de kwaliteit van zorg. Wie worden er beter van, de patiënten of de managers. (Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie 2011)

- De ouderenzorg is hard aan verjonging toe. (Trouw 2010)

- Sterke zorg voor kwetsbare ouderen. (Medisch Contact 2010)

- De moord op de verpleeghuisarts. (Medisch Contact 2009)

- Verpleeghuisarts, aangenaam. (Medisch Contact 2009)

- Verpleeghuisarts op Bonaire. (Medisch Contatct 2009)

- Nieuwjaarconcert 2008

- Onthand Ouderenbeleid. (NTGG 2008)

- Genoeg handen maar niet de juiste.... (Medisch Contact 2008)

- Rollator slecht surrogaat voor helpende arm. (Trouw 2007)

- Geen column voor de Staatssecretaris van VWS

- Ons congres ......... The morning after

To read you may click (comments are in Dutch) HERE; klik HIER om de commentaren te lezen