Heleen van Ommen, MD, PhD, is a pediatric hematologist, who completed fellowship training in pediatric hematology and oncology at the Emma Children’s Hospital AMC in 2002. In the same year, she earned a PhD at the University of Amsterdam with a thesis on the epidemiology, risk factors and outcome of pediatric venous thromboembolism (VTE). After graduating she completed a research fellowship in hemostasis and thrombosis in the Henderson Research Center in Hamilton, Canada in 2003. She joined the pediatric hematology department of the Emma Children’s Hospital AMC in 2004 as pediatric hematologist and moved to the Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam in 2015. Since 2019, she is chair of the pediatric hematology-oncology department in Erasmus MC. In addition she is responsible for the pediatric hematology fellowship training and the training of last year pediatric interns in pediatric hematology during a 3-6 month period (“verdiepingsstage”). She is initiator of care pathways development in pediatric hematology in the region.
Heleen is founder and chair of the national Pediatric Thrombosis and Stroke working group, past co-chair of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) Pediatric/Neonatal Scientific and Standardization Committee (SSC), and founder and chair of the International Pediatric Thrombosis Network with more than 70 participating centers in 28 countries. In the Netherlands, she developed the Cyberpoli for pediatric thrombosis, an interactive site for teenagers with a chronic disease in cooperation with “Artsen for Kinderen”. (www.cyberpoli.nl/trombose) Since 2020, she is board secretary of the Dutch Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Over the past 20 years, Heleen has served on many (inter)national guideline panels and committees in pediatric and adult VTE, ischemic stroke, blood transfusion and immune thrombocytopenia. She is member of the pediatric panel for the ASH pediatric VTE guideline. Since 2008, she served as consultant for several Pediatric Investigational Plans of pharmaceutical companies (Apixaban, BMS; Andrexanet, Portola; Betrixaban, Portola; Edoxaban, Daiichi Sankyo; Dabigatran, BI; Abelacimab, Anthos). She has been the Dutch coordinating PI for Phase III studies of rivaroxaban in the management of pediatric VTE (Einstein Junior studies). She is chair of the steering committee of Hokusai Peds study: Edoxaban vs standard of care treatment of pediatric VTE (Daiichi Sankyo) and member of the DMC phase II and III studies of Dabigatran vs standard of care treatment of pediatric VTE (BI). In addition, she is member of Cardiology and Oncology Expert group for Conect 4 Children.
Research interests include management of neonatal catheter-related thrombosis (Neoclot study), prevention of cancer-associated VTE and home parenteral nutrition-associated VTE, epidemiology of VTE in adolescents and young adults (in cooperation with Dr Kruip, Erasmus MC), VTE in IBD patients and coagulation in ECMO pediatric patients. As pediatric thrombosis is a rare disorder, which predominantly develops in hospitalized children with severe underlying diseases, research requires collaboration with several other pediatric clinical specialists, and pediatric thrombosis experts worldwide.