Introduction of board members

Elizabeth Legger

My name is Elizabeth Legger and I have been working as a pediatric rheumatologist at the UMC in Groningen since 2013. One of my areas of interest is children with autoinflammatory disorders. Within the Netherlands (and Europe) we work very closely with other doctors, parents and patients to improve the care for these children. I also believe it is important to conduct scientific research into, and to teach about, autoinflammatory disorders. I hope to be able to contribute to this as a board member of the ‘Friends of KAISZ’ fund.

Claudia van Hout

The ‘Friends of KAISZ’ fund has asked me to become a member of the board. I have responded positively to this because I feel it is important to improve the patient care for this group of patients, to make information accessible and to increase the awareness of KAISZ disorders.

Let me introduce myself to you. I have been a KAISZ patient since the age of eleven and am therefore an expert by experience. I’m also the founder of the KAISZ association and have served as its chairperson for ten years. As such, I have gained the necessary expertise in various fields and am familiar with the current medical world.

I hope that with the fund we can contribute to the improvement of (individual) patient care and put KAISZ diseases even more on the map!

Anna Simon

Anna Simon obtained her doctorate in 2004 with a dissertation on the topic of Hyper-IgD syndrome and other autoinflammatory diseases. She has been treating patients with autoinflammatory diseases since 1999, first during her training as an internist, and later as a staff member of internal medicine at Radboudumc Nijmegen. As of the 1st of May 2021, she will stop working as an internist at Radboudumc. She has also worked abroad twice, for Doctors Without Borders. She lives in Nijmegen, is single and has no children. Some of the things she enjoys in her spare time, are history, reading and hiking. She has also published a historical novel, and a book about her experiences while working during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. She is also an audiobook narrator.

Michel Angevare

I’m looking forward to becoming a board member of the ‘’Friends of KAISZ’ fund! The fund has a clear objective within the KAISZ foundation and can make an important contribution to patient care. Because of our son Luc (an autoinflammation patient) and my wife Saskya, who is very active in the KAISZ foundation, I have always been involved, and now the time has come to become an active member myself.

I work as a Lead Business Architect for the Wholesale & Rural division of Rabobank and my educational background is econometrics (at the VU). This background will hopefully come in handy in the areas of data, finance and organisation.

I look forward to successfully setting up and running the ‘Friends of KAISZ’ fund and as such helping to further improve the quality of life for patients!

Joost Frenkel

My name is Joost Frenkel. I’m a professor at Utrecht University, a medical teacher and head of the paediatrics training programme in the Utrecht region. I work as a paediatric rheumatologist at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, a national and international reference centre for rare disorders of the immune system. Over the years, I have gained expertise in the field of autoinflammatory disorders. In 2002, I obtained my doctorate in medicine with a dissertation on recurrent fever and mevalonate kinase deficiency. Since then, I have been researching the origin of inflammation in mevalonate kinase deficiency and its treatment. I have been a member of ISSAID since its beginning, of the PReS working party on autoinflammatory diseases, and of the interfaculty work group on autoinflammatory diseases. I am also a member of the steering committee of EUROFEVER.