Sven K. Schiemanck, MD, PhD is physiatrist (rehabilitation specialist) and head of the department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) since 2015. He is specialized in Hospital Rehabilitation, Neurorehabilitation (Stroke, Neuromuscular Diseases, Spinal Cord Injury) and Gait. He is seconded for outclinical practice at the Rehabilitation Center “Basalt”, because of a collaboration agreement between the dept. of Rehabilitation LUMC and Basalt Rehabilitation Center.
He was trained as a physiatrist at Utrecht University Medical Centre (1998-2005), and completed his PhD thesis on “Long-term functional outcome after stroke: the impact of MRI detected lesion characteristics” in 2007. He worked as physiatrist (and manager Neuroteam) at the department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC), Amsterdam (2005-2015). From 2006-2011 he was medical consultant in Nursing Home “Berkenstede” for Geriatric Rehabilitation and consultant at Rehabilitation Center Reade, Amsterdam.
He is member of the general steering committee of the Netherlands Society of Rehabilitation Medicine (NSRM) and member of the ‘Committee of Science and Innovation’ of the NSRM.
In 2012 he was participant in the development of the “Triage instrument for Geriatric Rehabilitation”, Verenso, 2013. He received a grant in 2017 (“Stichting Kwaliteitsgelden Medisch Specailisten, SKMS) to develop a consensus guideline for triage after stroke (“Triage na CVA: een leidraad”). In his opinion research in Rehabilitation Medicine should have its focus on patients of all ages and to find ways to include new medical technologies in making rehabilitation treatment accessible and personalized, and to limit the costs in rehabilitation care, in a developing society with growing healthcare costs and an ageing population.
He teaches at Leiden University and at the Technical University of Delft (Master course Technical Medicine – Extramural Sensing and Virtual Stimulation (e-health).