"Order of Oranje" for Fred Holtkamp

Fred Holtkamp, teacher and researcher at the Fontys Paramedic Hogeschool, can call himself Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau since April 26, 2021. He receives this award because of his commitment at home and abroad to orthopedic shoes and other assistive devices for people with walking problems.

Fred Holtkamp works as a teaching and research fellow at Fontys Paramedic University, where he is part of the healthcare technology team. Together with colleagues, students and partners from the field, Holtkamp conducts research on new methods for orthopedic assistive devices. For the SmartScan research project, Holtkamp recently received a grant from Sia-Raak, part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The research is considered groundbreaking in orthopedic footwear technology.

In addition, Fred Holtkamp has been committed for many years to transferring knowledge about the treatment of foot problems to countries where there has been no training in this field to date. A few years ago, for example, he was instrumental in a training project in Vietnam in which students from various Asian countries received basic training in pedorthics.

The award was a big surprise for Fred Holtkamp. He was officially nominated by his long-time colleagues at Fontys, Geert-Jos van der Maazen and Yvonne van Zaalen. They had managed to keep the award a secret until the very end. So Fred Holtkamp was quite overwhelmed when, on the day of the award, a large, open coach suddenly appeared in front of his house in Veldhoven with a brass band and the mayor. Holtkamp: "I am really completely surprised, actually a bit out of the loop. This award is extremely honorable and a very nice recognition for all the work of me and the people around me. We really did this together."

(Source: Fontys Paramedic Hoegeschool)