Biography

Cees Smit (1951) studied business economics at the Free University in Amsterdam. From 1978 till now, he has been member of the research project ‘Haemophilia in The Netherlands’ at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC). For 11 years (1987-1998) he was co-ordinator of the Netherlands Haemophilia Society and for an additional 4 years (1998-2002), he focused his work in the area of mental health. He is also a founding member of the EHC.

In January 2003, Cees received an honorary doctorate from the College of Deans of the University of Amsterdam in recognition for his work on patient participation, haemophilia and medical biotechnology.

Cees has authored several books including on ageing with chronic diseases, like haemophilia and HIV. ‘Ageing with haemophilia’, was published in English in 2007. In September 2015, he published together with Annemarie de Knecht – van Eekelen the book ‘De macht van de patiënt, baas over je eigen ziekte’. So far only available in Dutch, the English title would read ‘The power of the patient, master of your own disease’. One of the issues discussed in this book is the increasing cooperation between patients, researchers and industry in the drug development process (Patient 3.0). In 2020 he published his autobiography ‘Surviving haemophilia, a road trip through the world of healthcare.’’