Agnes van der Heide

Agnes van der Heide is a Full Professor in the Department of Public Health at Erasmus MC, a leading academic medical center in the Netherlands. She is a highly active researcher with over 450 publications, focusing on end-of-life care, advance care planning, and palliative therapy. Her work bridges clinical practice, public health policy, and ethical considerations in terminal care.

Her research interests are deeply rooted in improving care for patients with life-limiting illnesses. Key areas include advance care planning, end-of-life decision-making, palliative care implementation, and ethical aspects of medical assistance in dying. She employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, often in international collaborative settings such as the ACTION study and the iLIVE consortium.

The trends in her recent publications (2025) reflect a strong focus on implementation science, digital health tools (e-health), and cross-national comparisons. Her work frequently appears in top journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine, Patient Education and Counseling, and Journal of Advanced Nursing, indicating high impact and visibility in the medical and public health communities.

She has supervised at least 28 graduate-level projects, indicating a strong commitment to mentoring the next generation of researchers in public health and palliative care. Her research is supported by extensive collaboration networks across Europe and beyond, as evidenced by multi-country studies and co-authorship with international experts.

Agnes van der Heide is actively involved in major research initiatives including:

• The ACTION study on advance care planning in cancer
• The iLIVE consortium on life-limiting illness and temporality
• Evaluation of e-health interventions using frameworks like NASSS and Normalization Process Theory