Paediatric nephrology involves diagnosing and treating all forms of genetic or acquired kidney diseases in children. The work varies from dealing with high blood pressure in children to the treatment of children who los their kidney function. Jaap Groothoff focuses on all types of kidney diseases in children. His research focuses in particular on end-stage renal failure in children (dialysis and transplantation), primary hyperoxaluria (a hereditary metabolic disease-causing kidney stones and kidney calcification) and plasmapheresis treatment in children with the hereditary disease homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, which makes their cholesterol level excessively high.

As professor at the UvA, Groothoff will focus on improving the quality of dialysis and transplantation treatment in children. Among other things, he will do so by means of patient-related research of the physical and psychological consequences of dialysis and transplantation in children and targeted interventions that aim to reduce the adverse effects of these treatments to a minimum. In addition, he aims to further expand the existing international collaboration of paediatricians and nurses who focus on dialysis and transplantation in children and improve the quality of care by sharing experiences and optimising treatment protocols. In collaboration with an Australian group, Groothoff will be developing a method which makes it possible to involve parents and patients in the research and treatment modifications to the greatest possible extent (SONG initiative). Finally, he will be researching the causes of the hereditary metabolic kidney stone disease called Primary Hyperoxaluria and the optimal treatment of this serious illness in both children and adults. This will take place in close collaboration with centres in Germany, France, the UK and Spain.

About Jaap Groothoff

Groothoff is a paediatrician/paediatric nephrologist and the head of the Paediatric Nephrology department at the Emma Children's Hospital. He is on the Examinations Board of the UvA’s medical faculty and was also a project leader and coordinator when the current Master's degree programme in Medicine was being set up. In addition, Groothoff is a member of the AMC-UvA's quality assessment committee. He also serves as an examiner for the Commission Buitenslands Gediplomeerden Volksgezondheid (Holders of Foreign Qualifications in Healthcare).

Groothoff chairs the Registry of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology and is a member of the Steering Committee of Oxaleurope, a European consortium, which focuses on Primary Hyperoxaluria.