Suzanne Verstappen

Overview

I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, School of Biological Sciences.

I am an Epidemiologist with a main research interest in the longterm outcomes such as worker productivity loss, functional disability and co-morbidities and its predictors in patients with adult and juvenile onset inflammatory arthritis.  

I am the Director of Social Responsibility or the School of Biological Sciences.

I am the organizer of the in-house Centre for Musculoskeletal Research Basic Epidemiology, Genetic Epidemiology and Biostatistics course.

Biography

I completed my Masters degree in Human Movement Sciences, main topic Health Sciences, Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  I was awarded my PhD by the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Utrecht Medical Center investigating clinical and economic outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.  

I joined the Arthritis Research Centre for Epidemiology in 2007 and I am currently the principal investigator of the national Rheumatoid Arthritis Medication Study (RAMS) investigating response, adherence and adverse events to methotrexate therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. I am also the principal investigator of an international study investigating at-work productivity loss (i.e. presenteeism) and absenteeism in patients with inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis.  I am further a Co-Investigator of the Arthritis Research UK/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work investigating valuing of presenteeism in inflammatory arthritis.