Marco van Vulpen, HollandPTC: “The benefits of collaboration is being felt more and more”

In his inaugural speech entitled ‘Critical mass’, Prof. Dr. Marco van Vulpen, medical director of HollandPTC, talks about the introduction of proton therapy in the Netherlands, and the importance of collaboration between (academic) hospitals in healthcare as well as research. Prior to his inaugural speech, the ‘Proton Therapy Implementation and Collaboration Hub 2019’ will take place in Rotterdam on 10 and 11 October. This was a good opportunity to talk to him about the value of collaboration for HollandPTC. 

Why are you organizing a ‘hub’?

Bringing the right people together in the right place to work together is exactly what HollandPTC stands for. With the hub, we aim to bring everything together for two days around research into the treatment of patients with proton therapy.

What is HollandPTC?

HollandPTC is an independent outpatient center for proton therapy, scientific research and education, established by Erasmus MC, LUMC and TU Delft – three organizations that work together in Medical Delta. We’re researching the treatment of patients with proton therapy – a form of radiation that uses protons, instead of the photons that standard radiation uses. It causes less tissue damage around the tumor than photons.

The best thing would be if other hospitals and organizations would take on our collaboration modelShouldn’t every patient be treated using proton therapy?

Maybe. But the existing radiation with photons has good results. Proton therapy is a better option for people with tumors near delicate organs. At the moment, a patient will only get proton therapy if we can demonstrate that the treatment would have less side effects – then it’s covered by insurance. With research, we expect to find more examples of the situations in which proton therapy is more beneficial. With funding from Medical Delta, we have started a study on the efficiency of proton therapy.

What makes HollandPTC special?

In healthcare, departments and specialisms are set up organized side by side, and that sometimes makes it difficult to work together. The patient notices this too, partly because of the poorer communication between the different departments and doctors. I’ve been working for years to break down these silos in healthcare, and everything I’ve come up with is possible at HollandPTC. We have set up an open workspace at HollandPTC where doctors from different hospitals can come and treat their patients together. This open workspace is also designed for research.

What concrete results does the collaboration deliver?

At HollandPTC, we provide the space and all the technology for the treatment, and we work together with all the different experts who need to be involved in the treatment. The result is a treatment team of doctors from different hospitals who can consult each other, and who would normally be working separately in their own hospitals. Technology is integrated in the workplace thanks to our collaboration with TU Delft.

In ten years, I want to reach the point at which the collaboration is optimal and I’m no longer needed for it . A collaboration in which we don’t pay attention to the boundaries of our own departments, specialisms or institutions. I can already see that we feel the benefits of collaboration more and more, and I have faith that this will become our natural way of working. The best thing would be if other hospitals and organizations would take on our collaboration model.