Angelique de Rijk (PhD) is full professor in Work and Health, specialising in re-integration into work, at the Department of Social Medicine at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She holds a master in Work and Organisational Psychology and received her PhD in Health Psychology in 1999. Since then, she has focussed her research and education on psychological and sociological approaches to work disability and re-integration into work. In her current research she focuses on the relationship between labour participation and health, in the light of 1) prevention of work-related mental health disorders; 2) curative health care interventions on work-related support; 3) how employers support stay-at-work and re-integration into work and 4) (inter)national policy comparisons. The focus is on persons with chronic health conditions, with cardiac conditions and cancer in particular and on common mental health conditions, with burnout in particular. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods; methods are chosen to fit with the topic, theory and aim of the research.
Regarding research, Angelique de Rijk has contributed to more than 150 publications in international and national journals, books and reports. Currently, she supervises seven PhD-students. She has been chair of the revision of the Dutch guideline on Cardiac Rehabilitation in 2008-2011 and is currently chair of the Dutch guideline on Cancer and work. She has supervised diverse research projects on sickness absence, labour participation of chronically ill, and interventions for return to work. She currently supervises projects on sustainable employability and lifestyle for low-educated employees, hospital-based work-related care, return-to-work in employees with mental health disorders, and how to support employers of small and medium enterprises to manage return-to-work of their employees. She was member of the EU Costnetwork CANWON, the CANcer and WOrk Network, and co-ordinated its European study on employer perspectives on cancer in the workplace (2013-2017). She was rapporteur of the working group on Cancer and Employment for the European Cancer Meeting of the French National Cancer Institute. Since 2018, she has been board member of the living lab on Work & Health with Social Insurance South East Netherlands, an initiative to promote exchange of research and practical knowledge in Social Insurance Medicine.
Angelique de Rijk has extensive experience with (professional) training and education, within bachelor, master and post-graduate programmes and to professionals outside university.
Cathy J. Bradley, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean of Research in the Colorado School of Public Health and the Deputy Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. She holds the Paul Bunn Chair in Cancer Research. Prior to joining the University of Colorado, she was the founding Chair of the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Bradley is a health economist and received her Ph.D. and M.P.A. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Dr. Bradley’s research is at the intersection of labor supply, health, and insurance; health disparities; and the costs and outcomes of treatment. Her research explains how when faced with a serious and expensive to treat illness such as cancer, many workers will remain employed to keep employer-based health insurance, despite needs for treatment and convalescence. This research has extended to families and caregivers and their financial consequences. Dr. Bradley’s research informs policies that reduce disparate outcomes and financial burden among people who must make stark choices. In addition, her pioneering research in health equity resulted in an examination of health care delivery for underrepresented people. Dr. Bradley serves on multiple national advisory committees including the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum and formerly served on the National Advisory Committee to the Agency for Healthcare Quality & Research. She has received numerous awards and honors including the Women in Science, Dentistry, and Medicine Professional Achievement Award in Leadership and has research portfolio totaling over $30 million.
Angela de Boer is full professor at the University of Amsterdam and principal investigator at department of Public and Occupational Health of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location Academic Medical Center. The focus of her research is on chronic disease and work, with special attention on cancer and work.
Her research programme aims to provide high-quality, evidence-based contributions to: 1) identify prognostic factors for return-to-work and work maintenance of cancer survivors; 2) explore cancer survivors’ views on return to work and to continue working; 3) assess the impact of cancer on return-to-work and to work continuation; 4) assess quality of working life of cancer survivors; 5) improve psychosocial oncological care regarding work-related issues by designing and evaluating interventions for cancer patients; and 6) assess cost-effectiveness of work-related oncological interventions.
She found and chaired the European H2020 COST network on cancer and work CANWON with over 100 members from 23 countries.
Jean-Baptiste Fassier (MD, PhD) is an occupational physician at Lyon University Hospital and full professor of occupational medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University (UCBL). He is a researcher at UMRESTTE (UMR T 9405), Unité Mixte de Recherche Epidémiologique et de Surveillance Transport Travail Environnement.
His research explores work disability prevention and reintegration issues, promoting scientific and professional advancement of optimal methods to promote work participation and work ability of workers with a range of health conditions and work situations (low back pain, breast cancer).
He is the principal investigator of the FASTRACS project dedicated to develop, implement and evaluate an intervention to facilitate and sustain return to work after breast cancer.