• Continuity of care;
• Dizziness in older patients;
• Prediction rules;
• And - as a practising GP - translating theory into practice.

Dizziness

Prof. dr. Maarsingh is a GP, researcher and epidemiologist at the Department of General Practice, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc. Originally, his primary resaarch focus was dizziness in older patients. In 2010, he wrote his thesis Dizziness in older patients in general practice: a diagnostic challenge. In 2011, he was selected for the International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme (University of Oxford), a programme that aims to foster and develop future leaders in primary care research. As a researcher, he received multiple grants, co-authored many peer-reviewed publications and was/is a project leader of several trials in general practice. As an educator, he contribute(d) to multiple educational programs for Bachelor/Master students, PhD students, GP trainees, GPs, physiotherapists, and medical specialists.

During the last decade, he became a world leading expert in the field of dizziness in primary care. In 2013, 2015 and 2017 he received grants that enabled him to perform two RCTs on dizziness in general practice (i.e. multifactorial intervention to improve the prognosis of dizziness and online vestibular rehabilitation to treat dizziness) and a 10-year follow-up study on dizziness in older patients. In 2021, he received grants to implement an online intervention for vestibular symptoms in general practice and to perform an extensive diagnostic accuracy study for patients with vertigo. The aforementioned research activities on dizziness resulted in many national and international peer-reviewed publications – including the Cochrane Balance Suite with 11 systematic reviews, contributions to national and international textbooks, contributions to guidelines, a nationwide launch of the online intervention Vertigo Training, audiovisual education for patients and clinicians, ongoing learning modules, and an extensive international network on dizziness (Imperial College London, University of Southampton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cochrane Institute, Bárány Society).

In 2015, continuity of care became another research focus. Inspired by his father and grandfather - who were both fulltime GPs in a small village - he investigated the association between continuity of care in general practice and survival in older patients. The results of this study (i.e. low continuity of care in general practice is associated with a higher risk of mortality) stimulated him to write a proposal aiming to improve continuity of care in general care. In 2018, he obtained funding for an RCT to develop and evaluate an intervention to optimize personal continuity for older patients in general practice. In 2020, he initiated another study on continuity of care, focusing on the association between personal continuity and patient & practice characteristics. This research attracted attention of the National Association of General Practitioners (LHV) and led to a fruitful collaboration and new research projects on continuity of care. 

As a clinician, researcher and educator, he considers it his mission to inspire and translate theory into daily clinical practice.