News on health and wellbeing
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Our Mind Wanders Almost Half of the Time
18th March 2024Why is it that there are so many more conditions for a happier life than before, yet people often continue to focus on negative aspects of life? Michael Vlerick addresses this question in his book, "Waarom we niet gelukkiger zijn" ("Why We Aren't Happier"), providing us with tools to become content individuals within our means.
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Development of facial expressions in virtual human agents can help healthcare and education
10th January 2024Technology, such as computer graphics and machine learning, has helped to develop virtual agents that closely resemble humans in appearance and show increasingly human-like communicative behaviors. In her dissertation, Julija Vaitonyte did research on people’s perceptions of the appearance and behavior of virtual agents.
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Turn it for the better: How can VR help solve the global problem of unhealthy diets?
11th December 2023How can Virtual Reality technology help solve the global problem of unhealthy diets? Rachelle de Vries and her team are developing and evaluating an immersive multisensory VR food environment with 'Smell-e Technology' to research food choice behavior. Watch her presentation at TEDxBreda on this technology and the power of smell.
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Wealthy elderly benefit most from ‘generation pact’, PhD research finds
20th November 2023The aim of the Dutch ‘generation pact’ is to allow older employees to reduce their working hours to prevent them from dropping out while creating room for newcomers in the job market. However, research by Albert Rutten reveals that wealthy seniors are the primary beneficiaries of this arrangement, leaving the less well-off and the young with little to gain.
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Prosperity or wellbeing: What makes us happy? - Dies Natalis November 16
08th November 2023If you are not very rich, but healthy and happy, you will probably score highly on ‘broad prosperity’. Antoinette de Bont and Lex Meijdam have a dialogue on the subject and share with us their personal stories of happiness in life, about wellbeing and prosperity at the Dies Natalis on November 16. A sneak peek. Do you want to 'experience' the theme of broad prosperity? Join our Dies Natalis celebration!
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Tilburg University appoints Martin Salm as Professor of Health Economics and Applied Microeconomics
01st November 2023Tilburg University has appointed Martin Salm as full professor of Health Economics and Applied Microeconomics. He takes up this post on 1 November 2023. His research mainly focuses on economic incentives in the healthcare sector, for example exploring how patients respond to health insurance deductibles.
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In the subscription economy, research finds that most of us are oversubscribed
24th October 2023How many subscriptions do you have? A large study by Anna Paley and Niels van de Ven from Tilburg University shows that you probably have more than you realize, and that you’re spending a lot more money on subscription services than you think. The researchers found a new way of nudging people towards better insight into their finances, which proves to be highly effective in helping the oversubscribed cut down on their monthly subscription charges.
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Consortium receives NWO subsidy for research on more effective treatment of depression
04th October 2023Depression is the leading cause of disability. Patients receive treatment on a trial-and-error basis because it is unknown which treatment will benefit a patient. The BOOST Depression consortium will use artificial intelligence to develop biomarkers that can predict treatment outcome and guide the selection of the best treatment for each patient.
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Employee mental health suffers when company is going through a crisis
19th September 2023The number of workers taking antidepressants rises significantly when a company is going through financial turmoil, PhD research by Daniel Kárpáti shows. Job loss is an important reason for soaring prescription rates, but employees who don't lose their jobs are also more likely to suffer from depression. To curb the psychological and economic costs of recessions, Kárpáti argues for more proactive mental health strategies in times of crisis.
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Inaugural address Jolanda Mathijssen: Youth care needs systems thinking
23rd August 2023The care and upbringing of children is primarily the responsibility of parents. However, more and more parents are experiencing parenting stress as well as other concerns. This puts great pressure on families. To relieve the pressure, the government also has a role in providing a good system of youth care. "Care for youth cannot exist without care for parents and family," believes Professor of Care for Youth Jolanda Mathijssen.
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Prestigious awards for research on communication behavior in medical teams
09th August 2023In the Netherlands, patient treatment plans are mostly discussed within medical multidisciplinary teams, in which medical physicians collectively formulate treatment recommendations. According to award winning new research by organizational psychologist Margo Janssens, these teams would benefit from taking more time to discuss patients' background information and problems, the so-called initial orientation phase.
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Neurologist Dr. Guus Schoonman appointed endowed Professor 'Digital communication in clinical practice'
21st April 2023Neurologist and researcher Guus Schoonman has been appointed endowed Professor at the chair 'Digital communication in clinical practice' at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, effective May 1. This chair was established in collaboration with the Elisabeth-Tweesteden Hospital (ETZ)Tilburg. Schoonman will conduct research on the role and added value of digital tools in communication between the patient and the healthcare provider.
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Patrick Vriens: achieving sensible care with better soft skills doctors and smart apps
27th January 2023Sensible care means giving the right care to the right patient at the right time. That can lead to very different decisions for different people in the same situation. It is important that doctors talk to their patients and make the decision together. In doing so, quality of life is the guiding principle and expectation management is the key to the conversation. Endowed Professor and surgeon Patrick Vriens elaborates on this topic in his inaugural speech on Feb. 3.
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Confidence of the unvaccinated in authorities already very low before start COVID-19 vaccinations
13th July 2022Those who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 already had significantly less confidence in government authorities before the start of the vaccination campaign than people who did get a jab. However, unvaccinated people and the unvaccinated who are still undecided do not have the same thoughts and opinions on COVID-19 and vaccinations.
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Tailored risk information helps patients with cancer
04th July 2022Patients with cancer have a great need for tailored information based on figures and statistics on, for example, survival, treatment outcomes and risks of side effects. This is the outcome of Ruben Vromans' doctoral thesis, for which he will receive his doctorate on 8 July.