General practice · Clinical epidemiology · Diagnosis · Philosophy
Frank Buntinx
Professor emeritus of General Practice
KU Leuven and Maastricht University
For 45 years, Professor Emeritus Frank Buntinx worked as a general practitioner in Maasmechelen (Belgium) and as a clinical-epidemiological researcher. His roles included founding chair of CEBAM, the Belgian Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, and professor at KU Leuven and Maastricht University. In recent years he has also been active in philosophy, above all in ethics and the philosophy of science.
What follows
Five paths through the work
- AboutThe consulting room, universities and later philosophical work behind the career.Open About
- ResearchRecurring clinical questions, from diagnosis and cancer signals to dementia care.Open Research
- PublicationsA searchable archive of 863 records with journals, years, themes and citations.Open Publications
- WritingsBooks, chapters, reports and congress presentations — the written record of fifty years of work.Open Writings
- ContactEmail, affiliations and links to Google Scholar, ORCID, KU Leuven and Intego.Open Contact
Selected work
Six works across a career
A compact selection showing the range of the work: definitions, diagnostic methods, cancer signals, screening and routine-data infrastructure.
- Comorbidity or multimorbidity: what's in a name? A review of literature
Gave multimorbidity its name and its definition, separating it from comorbidity, which assumes a single index disease. The distinction opened a field.
- Multimorbidity in general practice: prevalence, incidence, and determinants of co-occurring chronic and recurrent diseases
The prevalence study that followed, showing how common co-occurring chronic disease actually is in a general practice population.
- The evidence base of clinical diagnosis
Co-edited with J. André Knottnerus. Two editions. A standard reference for how to design and appraise a diagnostic study.
- Virologic versus cytologic triage of women with equivocal Pap smears: a meta-analysis of the accuracy to detect high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia
Meta-analysis of how to triage an equivocal cervical smear. Fed directly into how European cervical screening programmes were designed.
- Rectal bleeding and colorectal cancer in general practice: diagnostic study
What a common symptom is actually worth as a cancer signal once you measure it in general practice rather than in hospital.
- The Intego database: background, methods and basic results of a Flemish general practice-based continuous morbidity registration project
The methods behind Intego, the Flemish general-practice morbidity registration network running since 1994.
Research
Topics that shaped the work
The archive is organised by recurring questions rather than by journal title alone.
- 5Global population health (consortium)
- 21Multimorbidity
- 43Bladder cancer epidemiology
- 44Alcohol and addiction screening
- 47Cervical screening and HPV
- 56Routine-data research infrastructure
- 62Cancer detection in primary care
- 64Serious infection in children
- 72Cardiovascular and blood pressure
- 87Diagnostic research methodology
- 145Older people, dementia and nursing homes
- 217General practice and primary care
Books and monographs
A shelf across the years
Original covers are shown where a clear, reliable scan is available. The remaining volumes use publisher-inspired typographic covers and link to their scholarly records.
Published in
- Nature Medicine
- JAMA
- Nature Genetics
- JNCI
- The Lancet
- BMJ
- J Clin Epidemiol
- Br J Gen Pract
- Family Practice
- Huisarts Nu
Now
Beyond the professorship
- Still publishing
Co-supervised doctorates completed in 2023 and 2024, and a co-authored study of postpartum care in China published in 2025.
- Ethics in home care
Member of the ethics working group at Wit-Gele Kruis Limburg since 2021, helping home nurses work through ethically difficult cases, and clinical adviser to a care facility in Lanaken.
- Philosophy and public teaching
Completed a postgraduate programme in Philosophy, Philosophising, Citizenship and Critical Thinking at PXL in 2021, and lectures publicly through Avansa Limburg. Volunteers with SOMA Maasmechelen on poverty.