Dr. Niels Van Regenmortel, MD, PhD
Deputy Head of the Dept. of Intensive Care Medicine – ZAS
Niels Van Regenmortel graduated as an internist-intensivist from the University of Antwerp in 2007 and began working as a staff member in Intensive Care at the historic Stuivenberg Hospital. He became head of the ICU department in 2017 and currently serves as Deputy Head of Intensive Care within the vast Antwerp hospital network “Ziekenhuis aan de Stroom” (ZAS). His medical passions within intensive care include fluid and electrolyte balance, intravenous fluid policy, and in-depth blood gas analysis. He is deeply involved in the largest project the department has undertaken to date: the establishment of a Trauma Level I center.
Fascinated by the harmful effects of uncritical fluid therapy in hospitals, he co-founded the International Fluid Academy in 2011 together with Dr Manu Malbrain. What started as a one-day symposium has grown into a global educational initiative that promotes awareness of fluid and salt overload through online content and conferences held in dozens of countries.
In 2014, Dr Van Regenmortel embarked on a PhD project, during which he worked part-time at the UZA intensive care unit for nearly four years. He obtained his Doctorate in Medical Sciences in 2021 after defending his thesis “Harms and Pitfalls of Intravenous Fluid Therapy in the Hospital.” The final published chapter received wide acclaim and has been downloaded more than 50,000 times.
Dr Van Regenmortel is the author of over 75 scientific papers and book chapters and has delivered countless lectures at national and international conferences and symposia. He serves on PhD juries both in Belgium and abroad and acts as a peer reviewer for several journals, including Intensive Care Medicine. He was the local Principal Investigator for multiple RCTs and is currently leading as Chief Investigator the first major ICU study on reducing sodium burdens, the CRUSADERS-trial, funded by the Flemish Research Foundation. He regularly advises the Industry via Advisory Boards.
From early in his career, he was committed to the training of residents, which led to his appointment in 2017 as clinical training supervisor for Intensive Care and Internal Medicine. In this role, he has overseen the training of over 100 medical residents, striving to be both a formal educator and a motivating mentor. He has long been involved in teaching and currently lectures at KU Leuven (on Rational Fluid Therapy, within the Advanced Master’s in Specialist Medicine) and at AP University College (on Organ Failure in the Postgraduate Nursing Program, formerly the Advanced Bachelor in Emergency Medicine and ICU). He also teaches within the Advanced Master in Internal Medicine (on blood gas analysis, antibiotic policy, fluid therapy) at the University of Antwerp and the Interuniversity Postgraduate Program for the Special Professional Title in Intensive Care. He frequently serves as examiner for both the European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC) and the Belgian Interuniversity Intensive Care Examination. Dr Van Regenmortel has long been a member of the Permanent Education Committee for the Advanced Master’s in Specialist Medicine at KU Leuven and served several years on the National Accreditation Committee for Intensive Care.
On a societal level, he is regularly consulted as an expert in criminal cases, contributes to the Federal Commission for supervision of medical practice (FOD Public Health), and supports the rollout of the national ICU benchmarking program MICA in collaboration with RIZIV, FOD, and the public health institute Sciensano. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped give a public face to the profession of intensivist on the Woestijnvis television program Topdokters.
Outside of work, Niels passionately pursues his love of cinema and enjoys traveling with his wife Karen and their children to all corners of the world — the more remote the landscape to explore by 4×4, the better. When asked where he finds the time, he usually answers clearly and concisely: no sports.
