June 3, 2023 Hans Hobbelen receives an International Service Award - Education

Hans started his career as a physiotherapist in a nursing home in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and continued to work there for 22 years. He is passionate about physiotherapy for older people and finds the challenges, complexity, and puzzles in the diagnostic process and the best strategies to provide physiotherapeutic interventions make this a rewarding form of physiotherapy.
Hans is a professor in ageing and allied health care at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, The Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Association of Physical Therapists (KNGF) science committee. Hans was a board member of the Dutch association of geriatric physiotherapists, 2010-2018. Since 2010, he has been actively involved in the International association of Physiotherapists working with Older People (IPTOP) and IPTOP president since May 2019. He has been involved in the development of curricula for bachelor and master degrees in geriatric physiotherapy and he is the author/co-author of over 50 scientific articles, five book chapters and co-editor of the Dutch standard work on physiotherapy in older people.

Hans Hobbelen:

Today, at the World Physiotherapy congress in Dubai,  I was honored to receive the World Physiotherapy Service Award on Education. I thank IPTOP, and specifically, Jill McClintock, for nominating me for this price and the endorsement and support of the Royal Dutch Physiotherapy Association (KNGF), the Dutch Geriatric Physiotherapy association (NVFG) and prof dr. Hans Drenth. Last but not least I thank World Physiotherapy for this acknowledgement of my work on Geriatric Physiotherapy in the past decades. As the world population is ageing it is of increasing importance that knowledge and skills of geriatric PT is getting across the profession and the health care workers.