In memoriam Prof. Dr. Roland Stroobandt

Roland was born in Ruddervoorde in 1945. He studied medicine at the University of Leuven and completed his cardiology training in 1975. As a cardiologist in Oostende, he founded the Cardiology department at the AZ St Jozef followed by the AZ Damiaan. He focused his work especially on the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias and the implantation of pacemakers and defibrillators. He was an electrophysiologist ‘avant la lettre’. 

In 1980, Roland co-founded the BEHRA, called the Belgian Working Group on Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology at that time. He was the third president of the working group. Notably, in 1993, Roland organized the European Congress on pacing with an impressive 1400 participants in Oostende

In 2006, Roland took up a part-time clinical and scientific activity at Ghent University Hospital, where he became a mentor for a whole new generation of cardiologists and electrophysiologists.

Even after his retirement from UZ Gent in 2013, Roland remained strongly active in the scientific field, inspiring young colleagues. Roland was famous for his outstanding knowledge of the electrocardiogram and his particularly didactic way of teaching at the many ECG evenings organized for colleagues, from general practitioners to cardiologists.

He also had an irrepressible urge to search day and night, almost rebelliously, for explanations and solutions to medical issues. Roland published more than 60 papers in international journals and he co-authored the Dutch reference book: 'ECG uit of in het hoofd' as well as other world-renown books on pacemakers, resynchronization therapy and defibrillators. His books have even been translated into Chinese and Korean.

But above all, Roland was a kind gentleman and an outstanding clinician giving great care to his patients, and he was a friend for life, whom you could count on day and night. 
We will miss Roland, but we remember the words of the Dutchman Toon Hermans himself: 

"Don't cry because I'm not here, but smile because I was here”

Dr. Frédéric Van Heuverswyn Prof. Dr. Jan De Pooter Dr. Liesbeth Timmers Prof. Dr. Michel De Pauw Cardiologie UZ Gent