Philip van der Wees, PhD, PT

Philip van der Wees is physical therapist and human movement scientist from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He finished his doctoral thesis in 2009, in which he evaluated the development and implementation of evidence-based clinical guidelines in physical therapy. He currently works as Program Manager Quality & Implementation in a joint program of the Royal Dutch Society for Physical Therapy, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (IQ healthcare), and Maastricht University (Caphri Research Institute). His assignment is to stimulate the implementation of clinical guidelines in physical therapy and to systematically evaluate the implementation in research projects.

Philip van der Wees was responsible for development and execution of the clinical guideline program of the Royal Dutch Society for Physical Therapy (KNGF), and is lead author of the KNGF-guideline Ankle sprain. He is co-author of several national multidisciplinary guidelines (Obesity, Ankle sprain, Tobacco addiction).  Within G-I-N he is representative of the European Region of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT). He wrote several key-note papers for WCPT about development and implementation of clinical guidelines, and has presented his research results at previous G-I-N conferences.

Philip is member of the G-I-N Disease Management Group and of the G-I-N Membership Subcommittee.  For the coming G-I-N conference in Lisbon he has organised two workshops to improve participation of allied health professionals and nurses in guideline development, and to integrate evidence and recommendations related to allied health professions and nursing in multidisciplinary guidelines.

"Vision of G-I-N in five years"

Since its foundation in 2002 G-I-N has been very successful in creating a worldwide network to initiate activities for further development of methods and strategies for guideline development and implementation. Membership participation is essential for the continuity of activities of G-I-N and should focus on two targets: (a) to increase participation of existing members to create a stable basis for the future, and (b) to expand membership with new groups, such as allied health professionals, nurses, and patient groups; and membership of organisations and/or individuals with a focus on implementation of guidelines.

For the next 5 years it is important that G-I-N will promote the development of integrative multidisciplinary guidelines. This requires involvement of medical professions, allied health professions, nurses and patients. Only by an integrative approach we can address requirements for adequate chronic care management, and this should be reflected in clinical guidelines. Participation of all relevant parties within G-I-N is therefore necessary to enhance disease management. 
Another target is to stimulate the implementation of guidelines. G-I-N provides an excellent platform to bundle expertise in order to expand the body of knowledge regarding implementation issues. We know that implementing change is very difficult and complex, and as a network we can collaborate to create more insight in successful strategies for implementation.

I would very much like to contribute to the goals of G-I-N as member of the Board of Trustees, and being a physical therapist may be assistive in enhancing participation of allied health professionals within G-I-N.

Email: chair@g-i-n.net