Hans Hofstraat

Hans Hofstraat is Research Program Manager at Philips’ Chief Technology Office, a position he has held since 2009. As Research Program Manager, Hans works with teams within Philips Research, with colleagues in Business and Markets, and with partners in the clinical (research) domain on innovations in the area of Oncology, Neurology, Infectious Diseases, and Universal Access to Care, combining deep clinical insights with the opportunities offered by digital healthcare solutions. Together with partners within and beyond Philips, Hans is passionate about identifying major needs in the health-technology domain, and to address these by developing meaningful solutions underpinned by proven outcomes. His aim is always to achieve innovations that broaden access to appropriate care and improve quality of life for patients and healthcare professionals. Hofstraat holds several positions in (inter)national advisory bodies. Amongst others, he is a member of the Dutch Sounding Board for Horizon 2020, contributing to work on Health, Demographic Change and Well-being. He is a member of the Steering Committee and co-initiator of the big data initiative of Top Sector Life Sciences & Health. He is also a member of the Management Team of the Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging (IDII), in which Philips participates together with UMC Utrecht, University Utrecht, and TU Eindhoven. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Health, and a member of the European Scientific Panel for Health. Hans joined Philips Research from Akzo Nobel Central Research in 1998. He has also worked as a (part-time) Professor at the Institute of Molecular Chemistry of the University of Amsterdam, and at the Public Works Department of the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Public Works in The Hague. He studied chemistry at the Free University Amsterdam (undergraduate degree awarded with the Unilever Chemistry prize) and graduated with a PhD in physical chemistry from the Free University Amsterdam (thesis awarded with the Royal Dutch Shell prize). Subsequently he was a post-doc in the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zuerich, Switzerland. He worked as a lecturer at the Free University, the Free University Medical Center, and the University College of Swaziland in Kwaluseni, while completing his studies. Hans has authored about 200 research papers with an h-index of 42 (Google Scholar) and holds 10 granted US patents.