In restaurant Het Prentenkabinet, Kroon got the decorations pinned on by Mayor Lenferink.
Internist-Infectiologist Dr. On Thursday evening, Frank Kroon was presented with the decorations belonging to the high distinction ‘Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau’ on the occasion of his farewell from the Leiden University Medical Center by Mayor Henri Lenferink. Partly thanks to Kroon’s pioneering research in the field of HIV and AIDS, an infection with HIV has become a chronic disease in contrast to thirty years ago.
Kroon was appointed at the Leiden University Medical Center in 1983. In the late 1980s, during his training as an internist-infectiologist, AIDS was still an almost untreatable and stigmatizing disease. “At the time, as a compassionate and committed doctor, he was a tireless support and refuge for the often young, death-sick patients. Numerous internist infectiologists have since learned the tricks of the trade from him, with an unwavering eye for human dignity ”, the municipality of Leiden reports.
Treatment centers
Frank Kroon has dedicated his entire career to improving the quality of HIV care in and outside the Netherlands. He conducted scientific research into the usefulness of preventive vaccinations in this patient group, for which he received the Dick Held Prize in 2000 from the Royal Dutch Society for the Promotion of Medicine. He also played a major role in gaining knowledge about how people with HIV can be protected as much as possible against certain infectious diseases.
“The honest way in which he worked with other colleagues in the field led, among other things, to his many years of unpaid chairmanship of the Dutch Association of AIDS practitioners (currently HIV practitioners) and the HIV Monitoring Foundation,” the municipality wrote in a message about the high distinction. “He was intensively involved in the administrative development of treatment guidelines and, among other things, the establishment of accredited HIV treatment centers.” Partly because of this, the Netherlands is currently in the global top five in HIV care.
Integer
Kroon also made a valuable contribution to the development of professional behavior through his commitment to the professional behavior committee at the LUMC. For ten years he gave an intensive week of in-service training in Suriname to all levels of healthcare that deal with HIV. In the Netherlands he taught students for a long time and gave national HIV refresher courses to GPs and nurses.
Frank Kroon has delivered exceptional scientific (research) achievements, is widely regarded as a clinician and is an honest, respected and connecting director in addition to an enthusiastic mentor, trainer and teacher. As (co-) author, he has an impressive list of scientific publications to his name.
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