M.K. Nieuwenhuis

M.K. Nieuwenhuis is a Professor at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, holding concurrent appointments in Functional Recovery and Quality of Life After Burns, the Centre of Expertise Healthy Ageing, and Healthy Ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing departments. Her work bridges clinical burn rehabilitation and geriatric care frameworks within the Dutch healthcare system.

Her research centers on burn care rehabilitation, functional recovery metrics, and healthy ageing, with emphases on nutritional interventions for burn patients, cardiorespiratory fitness assessment (notably the Steep Ramp Test), and value-based outcome frameworks. Recent work addresses scar management, fatigue epidemiology in burn survivors, and pediatric burn trends across Dutch specialized centers.

Publications from 2024-2025 reveal three dominant trajectories: (1) technical burn rehabilitation (scar laser therapy, muscle thickness ultrasound), (2) population-level burn epidemiology (Netherlands pediatric burn trends), and (3) healthcare system optimization (value-based core sets, fatigue measurement). These reflect a strategic shift toward standardized outcome metrics and resource-efficient burn care models.

Dr. Nieuwenhuis leads or co-leads five major research initiatives:

• NUBUS (2022–present): Nutritional practice among burn patients (PhD project)
• TZO-project (2022–2025): Specialized burn wound care optimization
• LIFT (2021–2025): Steep Ramp Test validation for Dutch adults/elderly
• Early Mobilization Project (2018–2022): Critically ill burn patient rehabilitation
• UMBO (2017–2022): Ultrasound muscle thickness monitoring in burn patients (PhD project)

As Principal Investigator on multiple PhD projects, she supervises doctoral candidates while directing multi-institutional collaborations with Dutch burn centers and geriatric care networks. Her work integrates clinical practice, measurement science, and healthcare policy reform.