Gustaaf Dekker
Prof. Gus Dekker (MD PhD FDCOG FRANZCOG), is the Clinical Director of the Women and Children's Division of the Northern Adelaide Health Service (Lyell McEwin Hospital and Modbury Hospital), and Professor in Obstetrics & Gynaecology with The University of Adelaide, Northern Campus. His medical training was obtained via the University of Leiden (MD Cum Laude 1978), followed by 3 years training in internal medicine (The Hague), and O&G specialist training via the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he finished his Academic PhD Thesis Erasmus entitled ‘Prediction and Prevention of Pregnancy-Induced Hypertensive Disorders. A Clinical and Pathophysiologic Study'; this thesis also included the world's first prospective RCT on low-dose Aspirin in the prevention of preeclampsia. After 10 years as Associate Professor in Maternal - Fetal Medicine at the Free University in Amsterdam, he migrated to Adelaide as the new chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the Northern Campus of the University of Adelaide. His areas of specific interest include the genetics and immunology of preeclampsia, prediction and prevention of preeclampsia, prediction and management of preterm labour and the role of genetic and acquired thrombophilic disorders in the causation of adverse pregnancy outcome and cerebral palsy. Gus Dekker has been highly successful in translating basic science progress into clinical pathogenetic concepts and therapeutic and preventative strategies that really changed clinical obstetrics. A PUBMED search reveals 231 publications, of which 164 since his arrival in Adelaide in November 1998.
He is one of the founders of the SCOPE group and currently scientific board member of the SCOPE consortium. Gus Dekker and his Adelaide collaborators have successfully completed the clinical part of the Australian contribution to the global SCOPE study; the largest ever program aimed at developing robust clinically useful predictors for preeclampsia, preterm labour and intra-uterine growth restriction.
His clinical work involves maternal-fetal medicine and obstetric medicine. He is nationally and internationally recognised as one of the leading experts in the fields of preeclampsia and thrombophilias and adverse pregnancy outcome. After his arrival in South Australia, he has been instrumental in transforming the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Lyell McEwin Hospital from a district hospital maternity service into what is now recognised as one of the most innovating and evidence based departments in South Australia with the largest number of training medical officers.
Abstracts this author is presenting: