prof.dr. D.W. Donker MD (Dirk)

Full Professor
TNW-BIS-CRPH
d.w.donker@utwente.nl
+31534897675
Business card

In March 2021, I was appointed on the chair of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Physiology (CRPH) at the faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Twente.

The chair is specifically intended to stimulate translational research and education. This, in order to allow patients and health care professionals to maximally benefit from the latest ingenious technologies integrated into modern clinical practice. In this sense, I consider my academic-clinical ambitions equally important as my dedication to professional education in technical medicine, biomedical technology and medicine.

I am indebted for the opportunity to combine my professorship with a position as a senior staff member and intensivist-cardiologist in the Intensive Care Centre at the University Medical Centre Utrecht.

The care for patients with acute and life-threatening disease remains complex and challenging. My experience from daily critical care underlines my enduring personal aspiration to advance technological innovation and improve clinical practice.  

After attending medical school in Essen, Germany, I received my PhD thesis entitled ‘Cardiac mechanomyopathy - integrating the picture from cell to beating heart’ from Maastricht University in 2008. Meanwhile, I completed my medical specialization in Cardiology followed by Intensive Care training at the Maastricht University Medical Center. In 2013, I joined the staff of the Intensive Care Centre at the University Medical Centre Utrecht and in 2019, I expanded my academic-clinical experience in Cardiological Critical Care at the La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

My clinical, educational and research interests center around complex cardiovascular and respiratory care. In recent years, I focused on cardiac and pulmonary extracorporeal life support to optimize its clinical use and expand practice-relevant mechanistic insights. My affinity with echocardiography and an inspiring collaboration on patient-specific computer simulation through the years has greatly enlarged my comprehensive physiological understanding and contributes importantly to my work as a physician.

I am actively involved in national and international scientific organizations in the field, collaborate with many dedicated clinicians, researchers and companies, authored many scientific publications and provided numerous presentations. All this, to foster professionals’ enthusiasm and strive to realize a continuing translation of technology, where it is most urgently needed: at the bedside of the individual patient.

Expertise

  • Medicine and Dentistry

    • Patient
    • Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
    • Extracorporeal Life Support
    • Cardiogenic Shock
    • Adult
    • Inpatient
    • Assisted Circulation
    • Extracorporeal

Organisations

Ancillary activities

  • HBOX TherapiesResearch consultancy
  • Abiomed, Aachen, GermanyEducational consultancy
  • Consultancy research in the field of critical careContract research

Publications

2025

Non-Interchangeability between Heart Rate Variability and Pulse Rate Variability During Supine-to-Stand Tests (2025)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Lin, R., Halfwerk, F., Laverman, G. D., Donker, D. & Wang, Y.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.07535A randomized embedded multifactorial adaptive platform for extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (REMAP ECMO) – design and rationale of the left ventricular unloading trial domain (2025)American heart journal, 279, 81-93. van Steenwijk, M. P. J., van Rosmalen, J., Elzo Kraemer, C. V., Donker, D. W., Hermens, J. A. J. M., Kraaijeveld, A. O., Maas, J. J., Akin, S., Montenij, L. J., Vlaar, A. P. J., van den Bergh, W. M., Oude Lansink-Hartgring, A., de Metz, J., Voesten, N., Boersma, E., Scholten, E., Beishuizen, A., Lexis, C. P. H., Peperstraete, H., … Meuwese, C. L.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2024.10.010Morphological Prediction of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure–associated Acute Respiratory Instability (2025)Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 22(1), 138-149. Nassi, T. E., Oppersma, E., Labarca, G., Donker, D. W., Westover, M. B. & Thomas, R. J.https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202311-979OC

2024

Advanced waveform analysis of diaphragm surface EMG allows for continuous non-invasive assessment of respiratory effort in critically ill patients at different PEEP levels (2024)Critical care, 28(1). Article 195. Warnaar, R. S. P., Cornet, A. D., Beishuizen, A., Moore, C. M., Donker, D. W. & Oppersma, E.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-024-04978-0Imaging in acute percutaneous mechanical circulatory support in adults: A clinical consensus statement of the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC) of the ESC, the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) of the ESC and the European branch of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (EuroELSO) (2024)European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging, 25(12), e296-e311. Tavazzi, G., Price, S., Beitnes, J. O., Bleakley, C., Balik, M., Lochy, S., Moller, J. E., Guarracino, F., Donal, E., Donker, D. W., Belohlavek, J. & Hassager, C.https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeae219Mechanical circulatory support in cardiogenic shock: microaxial flow pumps for all and VA-ECMO consigned to the museum? (2024)Critical care, 28(1). Article 203. De Backer, D., Donker, D. W., Combes, A., Mebazaa, A., Moller, J. E. & Vincent, J. L.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-024-04988-yPhysiological control for left ventricular assist devices based on deep reinforcement learning (2024)Artificial organs, 48(12), 1418-1429. Fernández-Zapico, D., Peirelinck, T., Deconinck, G., Donker, D. W. & Fresiello, L.https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14845All models are wrong but some provide seemingly surprising mechanistic insights into the complexity of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (2024)Perfusion (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Fresiello, L. & Donker, D. W.https://doi.org/10.1177/02676591241263908Definition and management of right ventricular injury in adult patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for respiratory support using the Delphi method: a PRORVnet study: Expert position statements (2024)Intensive care medicine, 50(9), 1411-1425. Zochios, V., Nasa, P., Yusuff, H., Schultz, M. J., Antonini, M. V., Duggal, A., Dugar, S., Ramanathan, K., Shekar, K., Schmidt, M., Agerstrand, C., Akkanti, B., Badulak, J., Vieillard-Baron, A., Brogan, T. V., Brodie, D., Cain, M., Camporota, L., Combes, A., … Read, M.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-024-07551-zHypotension Prediction Index Is Equally Effective in Predicting Intraoperative Hypotension during Noncardiac Surgery Compared to a Mean Arterial Pressure Threshold: A Prospective Observational Study (2024)Anesthesiology, 141(3), 453-462. Mulder, M. P., Harmannij-Markusse, M., Fresiello, L., Donker, D. W. & Potters, J.-W.https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000004990

Research profiles

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