About Us

The S.Q.O.T. initiative was initiated by a group of researchers and surgeons who believe that in the evaluation of treatment it is essential to assess the perspective of people living with obesity who undergo weight loss treatment. We found that in the treatment of obesity outcome measures focus exclusively on weight loss and comorbidities without consideration of other outcomes that are of equal or greater importance to patients.

We seek to develop methods to increase the incorporation of patients' perspectives in the evaluation of obesity treatment.

Claire de Vries

Claire E.E. de Vries (M.D., Ph.D.) studied medicine at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. After receiving her medical degree, she started her PhD and Master of Epidemiology at the same university. She is currently a research fellow at the Department of Surgery, Patient-Reported Outcomes, Value, and Experience (PROVE) Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. An important objective of her research is to enhance the value of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in the treatment of obesity. She co-founded the S.Q.O.T. initiative in 2018 with Valerie Monpellier following her systematic review of PROMs in bariatric and body contouring surgery.

Valerie Monpellier

Valerie M. Monpellier (MD, PhD) started her research of the bariatric population in 2011, focusing first on nutritional deficiencies. In 2014 she started her PhD at the Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek which she finished in 2019. Part of her research focused on quality of life after bariatric surgery.

She was a member of guideline committee for post-bariatric body contouring in the Netherlands and continued to work in the field of post-bariatric (body contouring) surgery, focusing on psychological factors and quality of life assessment. Currently, she is working as a clinical physician and research coordinator at the Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek, guiding PhD students and interns. Together with Claire, she co-founded the S.Q.O.T. initiative.

Phillip Dijkhorst

Phillip J. Dijkhorst (M.D.) started with research on obesity in 2017, two years after he was admitted to medical school. First, he examined the effect of revisional surgery after sleeve gastrectomy and later became interested in quality of life. Currently he has finished his medical degree and started his Ph.D. in the OLVG hospital on improving quality of life after bariatric surgery. To gain additional clinical experience with persons living with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery, he started working as a physician at the Dutch Obesity Clinic in Amsterdam. In 2021, he joined the S.Q.O.T. initiative as it perfectly fits the scope of his PhD research: standardizing quality of life and improving the quality of care for persons living with obesity.

Ronald Liem

Ronald Liem (M.D.) is a trauma surgeon, gastrointestinal surgeon and Head of the Department of Surgery of Groene Hart Hospital in Gouda (NL). He is a bariatric surgeon in the Dutch Obesity Clinic in The Hague (NOK West).

He currently serves as President of the Dutch Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and is a member of the clinical audit board of the Dutch Audit for the Treatment of Obesity (DATO) and a member of the IFSO Registry Committee.

Improving clinical care by reliable data using clinical and patient reported outcome measures, is one of his drivers, next to his clinical practice.

Bart van Wagenveld

Bart A. van Wagensveld (M.D., Ph.D.) worked as a consultant surgeon and head of the surgical department at the Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital in Amsterdam, one of the largest teaching hospitals in the Netherlands. There he established a full Laparoscopic Gastro-Intestinal and Bariatric program (IFSO certified), performing and teaching thousands of advanced laparoscopic surgeries. Also, he served as president of the Dutch Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (2014-2017).

Since 2017, he is the CMO for QURO in the Middle East. He now works as Consultant Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgeon in several hospitals in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

In addition, he is co-chairman of the Communication Committee and member of the Data Protection Committee of the IFSO. Over the span of his career, he published over 100 peer reviewed articles and 2 book chapters. He has also organized several national and international conferences and presented and served as moderator at many national and international conferences.

Ignace Janssen

Since his registration as general surgeon, Janssen has been involved in the introduction of laparoscopic surgery in the Netherlands. He is co-founder of the Dutch laparoscopic surgery society, and also co-founder of the Dutch Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in the Netherlands.

Ignace Janssen started laparoscopic bariatric surgery in 1995, with the adjustable gastric band. In 2000, he performed the first laparoscopic gastric bypass in the Netherlands. In 2013, he performed the first robot assisted gastric bypass. Since 1995 he has been involved in the training of surgeons in laparoscopic and Bariatric surgery. In recent years, he has further specialized into the field of optimizing care around bariatric surgery.

Together with Kobus Dijkhorst, he developed ‘the Dutch approach‘ in bariatric surgery. Up to recently, he was the Chief Medical Officer of the Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek.