Education

Our degree programs

At the Radboud university medical center for Infectious Diseases, various professionals collaborate in a multidisciplinary manner. They explicitly transfer their expertise in the field of infectious diseases to new, young medical professionals during their specialist degree programs. Infectious diseases form an important part of the degree programs for:

• medical microbiologists
• internist-infectious disease specialists (= differentiation year 5/6)
• pediatric infectious disease specialists/immunologists
• hospital pharmacists, with specific differentiation year in Infectious Diseases.
• nursing specialists in infectious diseases

Opportunities for international students

The field of medical sciences is rapidly expanding and country borders are becoming less of a barrier for achieving great science. Health problems need to be solved on a global scale for more impact on healthcare.  Internationalization is happening everywhere, also in education. Therefore, we have the ambition to implement international collaboration and shared education possibilities in education of our bachelor programmes Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. 

In a joint collaboration of the RCI coordinators of education, we decided to open our bachelor minor tracks (semester of September to January) for 3rd or 4th year international students in de field of Medical Sciences. Only a limited amount of placements are reserved to ensure the best quality in education. 
Information about the specific courses can be found in the tab ‘Our bachelor minor tracks’.

For questions about the possibility of following these minor tracks, please contact Koen van Aerde. 

Our bachelor minor tracks

• Global Health

  The focus of this minor is research in global health. You will acquire essential scientific knowledge and skills to analyze global health  issues in the field of infectious diseases, thereby linking molecular, clinical and population level aspects. You will learn to critically assess interventions that are aimed to reduce the global burden of infectious diseases and how to address these issues in low- and middle income countries. After completion of the Minor, students are able to:

  1. Critically assess molecular and biological approaches to fundamental research on infectious diseases that are of global significance.
  2. Understand the pathogenesis of certain infectious diseases and the options and limitation of infectious disease control.
  3. Apply practical knowledge on important aspects in the design of programme evaluation and clinical trials, and get hands-on experience in the handling, analysis and interpretation of research data for informing public health decisions.
  4. Apply mathematical models on the impact, costs and cost-effectiveness of HIV/AIDS control interventions; and use multiple criteria decision analysis for priority setting of health interventions
  5. Describe and analyze the main building blocks of a (national) health system and critical aspects of good health governance.

  Coordinator: Prof. R Baltussen, Department of Health Evidence

• Pediatric Infectious Diseases

  The focus of this minor is research in clinical Pediatric Infectious Diseases. After completion of the Minor, students are able to:

  1. Explain the different components of the developing immune system of the child from fetus throughout the first year of life and thus, to understand vulnerability to and prevalence of specific pathogens.
  2. Define the impact of infectious diseases and the associated clinical signs, and explain the use of appropriate preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
  3. Recognize primary and secondary immune deficiencies and to apply this knowledge for better  understanding of immune development and the pathophysiology of infectious diseases.
  4. Evaluate the optimal use of vaccines to be implemented or developed in order to contribute to the prevention of infectious diseases (at the cellular level, the individual level and the population level).
  5. Critically appraise clinical research questions, showing the ability to translate these into relevant research and clinical decision making, and to communicate these in graphical, oral and scientific presentation.

  Drs. K. van Aerde, MD, Dept. of Pediatrics - Dr. S. van Selm, Dept. of Pediatrics

  
   

• Control of Infectious Diseases

  This Minor focuses on the acquisition of essential scientific knowledge and skills to contribute to antibiotic stewardship, prevention and control of infectious diseases in hospital and community settings. After completion of the Minor, students are able to:

  1. To gain profound understanding of how genetic diversity and antigenic variation of micro-organisms related to infectious disease pathogenesis, transmission and evolution of infectious diseases.
  2. Gain profound and practical understanding of the development of anti-microbial resistance in infectious diseases and to participate in a multidisciplinary antibiotic stewardship team.
  3. To develop and present hospital infection control programs by understanding the concept of hospital infection prevention and control on a patient level.
  4. To apply the theoretical basis of infectious disease surveillance,  prevention and control, outbreak investigation and vaccine epidemiology into practice and scientific settings.
  5. To acquire modeling skills and to be able to use them for the prediction of the effect of interventions on an outbreak.
  6. To integrate the knowledge gained during the course by doing an own research assigniment, involving literature search, statistical data analyses, writing a scientific article and give an oral presentation of the results during a mini-symposium.

   Dr. J. Hautvast, MD, Dept. of Public Health  Prof. Dr. H. Wertheim, Dept. of Medical Microbiology

  

• Principles and practice of infectious diseases

  The focus of this minor is clinical infectious diseases. The student will acquire basic and advanced understanding and skills in the management of individual patients with infectious diseases, including tropical infectious diseases. The student will study the principles on rational use of antimicrobials for viral, bacterial, fungal and protozoal infections (stewardship) and will learn how to apply infection control measures in hospital care in order to be able to develop antimicrobial and infection prevention guidelines (on a basic level).
  
  This English spoken minor concerns clinical infectious diseases and rational antimicrobial and immunotherapy for the individual patient. After this minor you have an improved understanding and clinical insight of several infectious diseases and management of the patient. You have learned to order diagnostics in a more appropriate manner. In addition you can plan more rational treatment. Not only do we look at the Dutch situation but also across the border to other resistance patterns and even to tropical infections. In your classroom there are at least 8 international medical students. With them you will work on group assignments. You will practice antibiotic stewardship with the help of casuistry. You will join several multi disciplenary discussions.
  In these 10 weeks you will be challenged to give at least two presentations with your group. One of those will be about the development of an international guideline for a global health problem such as pneumonia. You will also get acquainted with the practice of the hospital infection prevention committee. Your knowledge of immunology will be deepened in order that you will be able to advise on immunotherapy and vaccinations.
  Hiv, tuberculosis and tropical infections such as malaria among others will be discussed. The interest of knowledge about tropical (also neglected) diseases for the Netherlands will be made clear to you. In short this is a challenging minor for the medical student with more than normal interest in infectious diseases in the whole World.

  Dr. M. Keuter, MD-PhD, Dept. Infectious Diseases  - Dr. F. Stelma,MD, Dept. of Medical Microbiology

  

Our master courses

• Medical Microbiology and Virology

  Description

  Microorganisms are a leading cause of disease. In this course, we will discuss different classes of microbes of medical importance. As several courses within the Microbiology MSc program focus on the biology of bacteria, we will discuss viruses, fungi and parasitic protozoa. Focusing on important representatives in each class, the biology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prospects for vaccine development will be presented.
  The course consists of lectures, interactive lectures, self-study assignments, and group assignments. Assignments will be posted on BrightSpace.

  Objectives

  At the end of the course, the student

  1. has obtained insights into the field of Medical Microbiology, including diagnostics, antibiotic resistance and antibiotic stewardship, and infection control.
  2. is able to describe important characteristics of different classes of microbes that cause human disease (fungi, viruses, and parasites).
  3. understands important concepts in transmission, pathogenesis, vaccine development, therapy and drug resistance.
  4. can describe the life cycles of major classes of viruses.

  Relation

  This part is mandatory for students of the MSc track “Microbiology” within the MSc program Medical biology. There is room to place additional students from other programs (up to a total of 30 students).

  • Coordinator: Ronald van Rij (dept. Medical Microbiology,Radboudumc), rci@radboudumc.nl 
  • Vice-coordinator: Pascal Miesen (dept. Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc), rci@radboudumc.nl 

• Infectious diseases and global health

  Description

  This course provides students with two distinct topics in the area of Infectious diseases and global health, with each topic being taught  for four days. The first topic is ‘HTA for Universal Health Coverage’, which is a central theme in present global health debates. The goal of Universal Health Coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them. The course concentrates on the role of HTA in this, and includes an assignment to assess the challenges of a specific country to achieve UHC. The second topic is on ‘Infectious disease surveillance, and outbreak investigation and control’. The course explains the do’s and don’ts of detection of infectious disease outbreaks  and evidence-based methods of outbreak control. The course includes an assignment related to an actual infectious disease outbreak, in which students need to develop an evidence-based outbreak control plan.

  Objectives

  After completion of the course, students are able to:
   
  For ‘HTA for Universal Health Coverage’

  1. define (knowledge) UHC
  2. explain (comprehension) the basic concept of UHC
  3. apply / perform (application)  UHC to a specific country context
  4. distinguish (analysis) HTA - the choices that countries need to make on their path to UHC
  5. evaluate (evaluation) HTA - the choices that a country has made on the path to UHC

  For ‘Infectious disease surveillance, and outbreak investigation and control’

  1. define (knowledge) an infectious outbreak
  2. explain (comprehension) the essentials of outbreak detection
  3. apply / perform (application)  the development of an outbreak control plan
  4. distinguish (analysis) between pros and cons of different options in outbreak control
  5. evaluate (evaluation) the effect of different outbreak control measures

  • Coordinator: prof. dr. R.M.P.M. Baltussen, rci@radboudumc.nl
  • Vice-coordinator: dr. A. Tostmann, rci@radboudumc.nl

   

Our postgraduate courses

• International Course Identification of Medical Fungi

  The Center of Expertise in Mycology of Radboud University Medical Center / Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital together with the Foundation Atlas of Clinical Fungi will organize a hands-on course on fungal identification.

  This course is specially designed for lab technicians, but also other workers in lab diagnostics may wish to attend. Background of fungal classification will be explained in detail, with both theoretical and practical sessions. The relevant fungi will be shown, and brief introductions will be provided into other diagnostic techniques, such as PCR and Maldi-tof. A special session will be devoted to susceptibility testing. The course will be didactic in such a way that no special mycological background is required. The one-week course will terminate with an examination and certificate. Lectures will be given by Hein van der Lee, Sybren de Hoog and Paul Verweij.

  Read more about the International Course Identification of Medical Fungi

• Dutch Antimicrobial Stewardship

  How to improve antibiotic use: a practical introduction to the development and implementation of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

  Our goal is to guide professionals and policy makers through the process of developing and implementing a successful Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in their hospital, healthcare system, region or even country. We achieve to do so by preparing you through pre-course online courses and project assignments, by teaching you through a 5-day course and helping you to elaborate your project. After the masterclass a dedicated coach will assist you with the evaluation and refinement of the project.

  Read more about Dutch Antimicrobial Stewardship