People of BIG

Linda Appelman

Linda Appelman (1983) studied Medicine at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. Immediately after graduating Medical School (medical exam 2011), she continued her career, becoming a medical specialist at the Northwest Hospital Group in Alkmaar; from June 2011 to October 2016 she became a radiologist.
Thereafter she obtained her fellowship in Breast Radiology at the Radboudumc in Nijmegen (September 2019) and was part of the medical staff of the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Radboudumc in Nijmegen from 2016 to 2023. Besides the clinical work, she also worked as a screening radiologist for the detection of breast cancer in the context of population screening. In early 2023, she has been working as a breast radiologist in a specialized hospital, Alexander Monro Hospital in Bilthoven.
In response to a call for effectiveness research in healthcare, she, together with Ritse Mann, breast radiologist and head of Breast Imaging Group (BIG), set up a large multicenter trial with the aim of determining the added value of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) in women with focal breast complaint after initial targeted ultrasound. This resulted in a current PhD program (starting in 2017) in which the clinical impact of the diagnostic pathway, the cost-effectiveness and the patient’s experience are important issues in women (> 30 years) with focal breast complaints at the radiology department.