Professor H.W. van den Borne, 71, has been affiliated with Maastricht University since 1992, first as an associate professor and later as a professor of Patient Education. He also served as vice-dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences for several years. He is currently the scientific director of the international Public Health Master at the Maastricht faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences. Van den Borne was the first professor of Patient Education in the Netherlands. Thanks in part to his dedicated efforts, the position of patient educator was structurally implemented in the Dutch healthcare system. He is also committed to sharing knowledge about health promotion in developing countries. Van den Borne still supervises many PhD candidates from these countries today.

The professor was a member of the St Elisabeth Hospitals' Supervisory Board from 2000 to 2008. He also served as an adviser for the Medical Research Council South Africa from 2000 to 2012, with a specialisation in HIV/AIDS prevention. He has been an adviser for the Schools of Public Health in South Africa and Mozambique since 2000, as well as a member of the transplant advisory board of the Dutch Kidney Foundation and a patient education and psychosocial care adviser for the Limburg Integrated Cancer Centre.