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Joost Dekker is Professor of Allied Health Care at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and at the Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (1997- present). His research focuses on behavioral factors in somatic disease, in the clinical epidemiological tradition. Focus is on musculoskeletal disorders, neurological disorders and oncology. He is chair of the research theme 'Soma & Psyche' of the research program ‘Mental Health’ at the Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGO+, Amsterdam). He is leader of the department Rehabilitation Research at Reade (Rehabilitation and Rheumatology), Amsterdam. He is ‘dosent’ ‘psychological aspects of rehabilitation’ at the Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Joost Dekker is a licensed health psychologist. He is President Elect of the the International Society of Behavioral Medicine. He performs editorial services for a wide range of journals. He is involved in international and national boards and committees. Examples include the International Society of Behavioral Medicine; the Netherlands Health Council; the Dutch Cancer Society- Committee on Social Oncology; the Committee on Physical Therapy of the Netherlands Health Research Council; the Netherlands Behavioral Medicine Federation; and Royal Netherlands Society of Physiotherapy. He contributed to the organization of many international and national scientific and professional conferences.
Research interest
Teaching