Dr P. J. M. Bakker (1948) has been named Professor of Healthcare Process Design and Process Innovation in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Amsterdam (AMC-UvA).

The quality of healthcare is a hot societal topic right now. Many healthcare organisations are having to deal with the problem of insufficient alignment and misalignment between traditional organisational concepts and developments in medicine and society. Piet Bakker will focus in particular on how the organisation of care can be used to optimise the quality of patient care. His teaching and research activities concentrate on design issues, and on the application of innovative technologies to improve the efficiency, efficacy and safety of care.

Bakker has been a staff member in the Medical Oncology department of the Academic Medical Center (AMC) since 1982. This year he was also named Director of the Quality and Process Innovation department at the AMC, where he also serves as a member of the board of the Outpatient Clinic and as head of the AMC's ICT Patient Care programme. Previously, Bakker was head of the Innovation and Process Management Team and Specialist Registrar in the department of Internal Medicine at the AMC. In addition, Bakker is a member of the Dutch Breast Cancer Research Group (Nederlandse Borstkanker Onderzoek Groep), which is an initiative of the Comprehensive Cancer Centres (Integrale Kanker Centra).