Dr W. L. J. M. Devillé (1952) has been named Professor by Special Appointment of Refugees and Health in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) as of 1 November 2008. The chair was designated on behalf of Stichting Pharos in Utrecht. Pharos is the national knowledge and advisory centre on refugee and migrant health.
The special chair was designed to promote and enhance research and theoretical work in the area of refugee and general migrant health, and to support interventions leading to improvement. By interlinking insights and studies from various disciplines - both at the national and international level - Devillé will develop new conceptual knowledge and innovative interventions relating to health and health promotion among refugees and other migrants.
Walter Devillé completed his medical training at the University of Leuven and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. He specialised in social epidemiology and obtained his doctorate from VU University Amsterdam in 2001. He was involved in public health and research in Africa and Asia and studied health behaviour and experience among refugees and migrants. Since 2001 Devillé has worked for the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) as Programme Leader for international and migrant healthcare. Prior to joining NIVEL he was affiliated with the VU University Medical Center as a researcher and epidemiologist-methodologist, and was a research staff team member and epidemiologist in the department of Health Care and Disease Control at the Royal Tropical Institute.
Devillé has represented the Netherlands on the COST action management committee ‘Health and Social Care for Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Europe (HOME)' since 2007, and has been Chairman of the Migrant Health department of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) since 2005. He has been a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Medische Antropologie since 2001.
The special chair was designed to promote and enhance research and theoretical work in the area of refugee and general migrant health, and to support interventions leading to improvement. By interlinking insights and studies from various disciplines - both at the national and international level - Devillé will develop new conceptual knowledge and innovative interventions relating to health and health promotion among refugees and other migrants.
Walter Devillé completed his medical training at the University of Leuven and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. He specialised in social epidemiology and obtained his doctorate from VU University Amsterdam in 2001. He was involved in public health and research in Africa and Asia and studied health behaviour and experience among refugees and migrants. Since 2001 Devillé has worked for the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) as Programme Leader for international and migrant healthcare. Prior to joining NIVEL he was affiliated with the VU University Medical Center as a researcher and epidemiologist-methodologist, and was a research staff team member and epidemiologist in the department of Health Care and Disease Control at the Royal Tropical Institute.
Devillé has represented the Netherlands on the COST action management committee ‘Health and Social Care for Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Europe (HOME)' since 2007, and has been Chairman of the Migrant Health department of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) since 2005. He has been a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Medische Antropologie since 2001.