Professor Jeen Haalboom

Tom Defloor

THE EPUAP AWARDS

THE European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP) started granting awards (initially the Lifetime Achievement Award, latterly replaced by the EPUAP Award) in 1998. By doing this, the EPUAP pays tribute to those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the field of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment over an extended period.

The first EPUAP award was awarded to Dr Mary Bliss during the Oxford
EPUAP conference in 1998. Thereafter awards were given to Dr Chryssanthi
Plati (Pisa, 2000), Professor Barbara Braden (Le Mans, 2001), and Professor
Joseph Barbenel (Budapest, 2002). In 2005 the EPUAP Trustees unanimously
decided to give this award to Dr Jeen Haalboom.

Trying to characterise Jeen Haalboom is no easy task. He comes from
Utrecht in the Netherlands and is a professor at the University of Utrecht.
He is a doctor by training, and immediately after completing his education
was confronted with the problem of pressure ulcers in his work as a nursing
home general practitioner. This one example defines what Jeen Haalboom
is like – once he has gotten hold of a subject, he never lets go. Thus he has
never stopped researching pressure ulcers.

In spite of a career as a cardiologist/internist and, since 2004, as a profes-
sor at University College in Utrecht, he has remained increasingly active in
the field of pressure ulcer research. He has not only written several publica-
tions on pressure ulcers, but has also been active in many other areas related
to pressure ulceration.

He was an EPUAP trustee and past president of the EPUAP and helped
to organise the successful EPUAP meeting in Amsterdam (1999) with Maarten
Lubbers. In the Netherlands he has been chairman of the national pressure
ulcer steering committee and member of the pressure ulcer committee of
the National Health Council. He was chairman and especially the pioneer of
the Dutch pressure ulcer guidelines, and I sometimes wonder whether we
shouldn’t rename these the ‘Haalboom Pressure Ulcer Guidelines’.
He has been successful in getting pressure ulcer research on the agenda
at the local, national and international levels. Whatever he believed in he
went forward, regardless of resistance or opposition. He has always viewed
pressure ulcers as a mission, and anyone who was confronted with him cer-
tainly can attest to this.

He has managed to achieve a great deal and has paved the way for others.
In 2004 Jeen was recognised by the Dutch government for his work with
pressure ulcers when he was made a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion.
Due to his appointment as professor he has now had to put aside his
pressure ulcer research and we know that this must have been difficult for
him to do.

Through this award the EPUAP emphasises its gratitude for Jeen
Haalboom and his support and enthusiasm for the development of the EPUAP
and his strong contribution to our understanding of pressure ulcers

Tom Defloor
President