Hello reader! I’m Luke van Rossenberg, a PhD candidate of the NEXT study group and affiliated to the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. After a year as resident not in training at the department of surgery at the Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht, I received the opportunity to fully emerge myself in the wondrous world of trauma research. A special thanks to Mark van Heijl, who introduced me to his area of expertise. Inspired by my supervisors, I am much enthused to explore the potential of natural experiments.
Currently, my focus is coordinating the SNAPSHOT radius and LADON radius studies in the Netherlands. Both studies aim to compare treatment of distal radius fractures between the Netherlands and Switzerland in a natural experiment design. The LADON aims to include elderly patients. The SNAPSHOT builds a multicenter database including patients aged 18 to 65, allowing the execution of multiple natural experiments. Furthermore, I have the opportunity to conduct research abroad next year in Switzerland and Miami, mainly focussing on the upper extremity. I am very grateful for this unique experience and I look forward to share the results of our projects and collaboration!

Hi! I'm Yannic Lecoultre, an orthopedics and traumatology resident at Lucerne cantonal hospital and PhD student at University of Lucerne, Switzerland.
I started research in immunology during medical school. After being drawn into orthopedic trauma surgery, Frank Beeres and Bryan van de Wall infected me with their passion for high quality trauma research and showed me the possibilities of natural experiments in this field.
After some smaller contributions in their projects, for example the LADON study, I finally got the opportunity to pursue my first own projects under their supervision. This has recently resulted in my first publications together with Björn Link. At the moment, I'm coordinating our clavicle double-plating natural experiment study as well as publishing our retrospective data on this topic; and trying to learn Dutch while I am at it.

Hi! My name is Nicole van Veelen and I am a trauma surgeon in Lucerne, Switzerland. I did my surgical training at various hospitals in Switzerland and then spent one year doing a trauma fellowship at the Royal London Hospital in the United Kingdom.

When I started working in Lucerne in 2018, I met PD Dr. FJP Beeres, who introduced me to the world of medical research. The first project I was able to join was the OPVENT study which was an observational study conducted in the Netherlands and Switzerland investigating the effect of surgical rib fixation in patients with multiple rib fractures. I was responsible for the organisation and patient recruitment in Switzerland. This provided me with the opportunity to gain valuable experience and exposure to the organization of an international multi-center study. Furthermore, in the past four years I was involved in several other projects which have resulted in 15 publications.

Currently I am working on the next LADON study which will compare operative and non-operative treatment of distal radius fractures in elderly patients. I look forward to working together with our colleagues in the Netherlands on this project. In spring 2023 I am planning a clinical fellowship in Utrecht. Besides facilitating the coordination of the study, I hope this fellowship will give me insight into a different healthcare system and allow me to widen my trauma surgical horizon.

My name is Puck van der Vet, 26 years old and I have completed my medical education in Amsterdam. I first started doing research during my Bachelors and in 2018, during the waiting period between my Bachelors and my Masters, I was given the opportunity to go to Lucerne to conduct research there. Together with Dr. Beeres and Dr. Houwert, I compared geriatric hip fracture care between a Swiss and a Dutch hospital. My other studies focused on patient-reported outcomes (i.e. Quality of Life, Patient Satisfaction and Fear of Falling) in geriatric fracture patients (see PUBMED for an overview). This work was extended into a PhD called ‘Geriatric Trauma Care: Improvement Strategies’. After my Masters I had the chance to go to Boston, where I am currently completing my PhD and conducting further research on patient-reported outcomes.

Conducting research abroad for me is an incredibly rewarding experience. You get to witness different perspectives, cultures and health care systems and I think you take this with you throughout the rest of your further career. In addition, I am very grateful for all the valuable connections and friendships I have gained through research. Hopefully, we will keep in touch and continue our collaboration in the future.

Hello! Nice to meet you. I am Ruben Hoepelman, I used to spend all my time playing top sport waterpolo with a lot of joy and enthusiasm and have now transferred this into my passion for surgery.

Currently, I am coordinating the LADON study, which is a great example of a natural experiment. It is an international multicentre observational study and patients are only included after there is proven disagreement between experts on best management for proximal humeral fractures, which makes it a unique study design and diminishes confounding. Since the study is a collaboration of Dutch and Swiss hospitals, I will be going to Luzern in September 2021 for a research fellowship of four months, facilitated by a scholarship of the Michaelfonds.

While in Luzern, I will be working closely together with PD. Dr. FJP Beeres and Dr. BJM van de Wall, who will, without a doubt, guide me in conducting exciting and well performed research, with the aim of improving emergency and orthopedic trauma surgery patient care. I am certain this fellowship will be very educational and I’m hoping you will be able to read about our efforts in future publications. I am really looking forward to my time in Luzern, mainly to focus on projects that embody the NEXT philosophy, but also to occasionally ski down a mountain and eat some Käsefondue.