‘The future of LifeLines is currently uncertain’, writes general manager Saakje Mulder in a letter to her employees. Staff at the population study were informed of the personnel consequences of this reorganisation. Participants in the study will be informed this month.
Spokesperson Denise Hamstra prefers not to use the word ‘reorganisation’, even though that is the word used in a statement on UMCG’s intranet. ‘It’s more of a redesign’, she says. ‘We’re currently talking to the Works council and unions about its design.’
In her letter to her employees, Mulder is more open. She writes that it not yet clear whether there will be another research round. ‘But should there be, it won’t be before 2019.’ Moreover, the study’s set-up will be different. ‘This will mean that jobs will disappear throughout the organisation.’
Subsidy
LifeLines is a large-scale population study in which participants across three generations are monitored for at least 30 years in order map the progression of chronic illnesses. It is supported through the end of this year with the help of subsidies, but after that, the money runs out. The organisation is unable to run on its own.
The province had previously made known that it would no longer provide financial help to the research programme. The board of directors are still in talks regarding subsidies with various ministries and provinces. ‘We are making an effort to ensure funding, but we’re not there yet’, says Hamstra. She will not say how many people will be let go.
Studies
Thanks to the financial support provided by UMCG and the RUG, the data that has been collected over the past decade will not be lost. The data and bodily substances that have been collected and stored at LifeLines will be preserved and remain available for scientific research.
‘The changes will not influence current studies that are being carried out using LifeLines data and they are positive for future studies’, the organisation told UMCG staff. But LifeLines will face reorganisation. ‘That is necessary because the research set-up is no longer sufficiently in line with the desires of the participants and researchers.’
Changes
After the second screening rounds in 2017, the research locations will be closing. For the set-up of a third screening round in 2019, new technological possibilities and changes in research methods will be considered.
Due to new technology, the outpatient clinics have become obsolete, says professor of genetics Cisco Wijmenga, who is connected to LifeLines Next. ‘Times have changed radically from ten years ago. Nowadays, it is much easier to have people do things themselves: collect data, fill things out, you name it. People are currently figuring out how to go about that. At LifeLines Next, for example, we’re researching how to use Philips smart devices to collect information in people’s homes, like a device that independently measures air quality, for example. This allows us to collect our data in a completely different, much more precise way than if someone visits a clinic once every five years.’
LifeLines’ service desk will be turned into a client contact centre to make the organisation ‘more efficient and user-friendly’. ‘The data and sample management for scientific research will be further professionalised’, according to the notice.
A year ago, scientific manager Ronald Stolk predicted that LifeLines would be unable to stand on its own feet. One of the reasons is that the data and samples of human tissue will only become interesting to researchers and companies in five to ten years. ‘At the start of our research, all our participants were healthy, and you can’t track the development of diseases unless they actually occur’, he said.