CHDR Twente: Pioneering at a new location

‘We chose to start our new unit in Twente because of our collaboration with the University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente, a large top-clinical hospital,’ says Dr Rozemarije Holewijn, who prepared the opening of the new unit as Director of CHDR Twente in 2025 together with Prof Koos Burggraaf. ‘These collaborations have already grown in recent years. The University of Twente is a technical university where many innovations in the field of medical technology are being developed. Medisch Spectrum Twente is a large regional hospital with the ambition to contribute more to clinical research. With our new unit, we can take full advantage of these partnerships. The region offers many opportunities for medical technology companies with which we may also be able to collaborate.’

CHDR Twente is housed in a Medisch Spectrum Twente building in Enschede that was originally constructed as a temporary intensive care facility. The rooms have been extensively renovated to give it a CHDR ‘look and feel’. The unit has a maximum capacity of 12 beds. ‘We are starting on a smaller scale,’ says Holewijn. ‘We currently have three nurses, a project leader, and an administrative officer, so we are not yet operating at full capacity. Even so, we already perform all clinical tasks, from screening participants to planning and conducting studies.’ The first study in the new unit was conducted by CHDR's R&D fund and involved the application of TMS-EEG along with a new EEG analysis method to assess cortical excitability.

The launch of the new unit is reminiscent of the very beginnings of CHDR. Back then, too, a small group of pioneers had to do everything. Holewijn sees similarities, but she also recognises the differences: ‘We now have the reputation of CHDR to uphold, an organisation that has proven itself in many areas and meets the quality requirements of today. Of course, we want to work as leanly as possible, but current requirements are quite strict. Fortunately, we can also fall back on the organisation in Leiden for many things. A lot can be done remotely, and for some tasks, someone from Leiden will come to Twente, for example to conduct an audit at a service provider.’

To mark the opening of CHDR Twente, a symposium was held entitled ‘Data as a Goldmine’. CHDR's Prof Robert Rissmann gave a presentation on multimodal data collection in dermatological research, Prof Boudewijn Lelieveldt, professor of biomedical imaging at Leiden University Medical Centre, spoke about the state-of-the-art in advanced data analysis and AI in biomedical imaging, and Dr Femke Nijboer, writer and assistant professor at the Biomedical Signals and Systems department of the University of Twente, gave a talk on the power of storytelling in science and healthcare. Holewijn: ‘It was an inspiring meeting, with speeches by leading administrators from Twente and Leiden, including the mayor of Enschede. It was great to see that our initiative is welcome there. I see many opportunities for future collaboration and high-quality innovations.’