Speaker - Dr Esther van der Werf-Kok

Esther van der Werf is a lecturer in Epidemiology of Primary Care Infectious Diseases and joined the Bristol Medical School of the University of Bristol (UK) and the Centre of Academic Primary Care (CAPC) in 2015. She obtained her PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2006 and subsequently worked at University of Medical Centre Utrecht (NL) and University of Applied Sciences Leiden (NL), before coming to Bristol.

She is an epidemiologist and trial manager with over 15 years’ experience of research (over 30 peer-review publications), teaching and study management (Randomised clinical trials and cohort studies). Her work to date relates to primary care, urology, quality of life, health promotion and alternative treatment to antibiotics.

Her current work has a strong focus on improving the use of antibiotics to reduce antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic consumption whilst maintaining symptom control in common primary care infection. The overall goal of her research-programme is to:

1) identify novel non-antibiotic interventions (prevention and treatment) to maximise antimicrobial stewardship for common infections (in human and animal)

2) determine the effect of commonly prescribed antibiotics on the human microbiome and strategies to keep the good bugs healthy.

Quote: “Antimicrobial resistance might be the key to Integrative Medicine in primary care”.

For publications see:

• research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/persons/esther-t-van-der-werf-kok
• bris.ac.uk/social-community-medicine/people/esther-t-van-der-werf-kok/overview.html