Welcome to the website of the internal medicine of the Horacio Oduber Hospital
| Office hours: 8:00-17:00 hours General internal medicine (Shocohin, J.E.M. Arends 14, Oranjestad, Aruba) Tel: +297 527 4309 Fax: +297 582 6163 WHATSAPP ONLY: +297 5974838 poli.interne@hoharuba.com Hematology and Oncology (Shocohin, J.E.M. Arends 14, Oranjestad, Aruba) Tel: +297 527 4350 Fax: +297 5884950 WHATSAPP ONLY: +297 5974837 poli.oncologie@hoharuba.com Centro di memoria / Geheugenpoli (Horacio Oduber Hospital, MOB building) T: +297 5974342 WHATSAPP: +297 5974342 E: poli.geheugen@hoharuba.com |
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English
Elementary: Spanish, papiamento
Karina Kelly was born and raised in Aruba. After finishing high school, Colegio Arubano VWO, in Aruba, she went to the USA. There she obtained her Bachelor of Science degree at Gannon University in Pennsylvania. She went to medical school at St Louis University Medical School in Missouri and finished her Internal Medicine residency in New Mexico. She is an experienced internist practicing her craft for almost 20 years on Aruba. She chose to move from private practice to work for the Dr Horacio Oduber Hospital in 2010. This was in an effort to improve our quality of patient care by working more as an internal medicine team. In addition to having an office at Shocohin, she also goes once a week to her office at IMSAN in San Nicolas where she also sees patients.
Clinical activity:General internal medicine patients are seen at both offices
Treatment of HIV patients
Rheumatoid Arthritis and other autoimmune diseases
Diabetes Mellitus plus all the complications
Thyroid disease
Recently took over transgender care
Professional activities:Chairperson for Internal Medicine Vakgroep 2012-2014
Chairperson Infectious disease committee 2012-2016, 2024-2026
Member of the HIV team
Member of the Board of Medical Specialists 2015-2016
Member of the American College of Physicians
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, Papiamento, Spanish, English
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English
About J. De Kort, MD
Jaclyn De Kort was born (1978) and raised in Aruba. After completing her secondary school at Colegio Arubano in 1998, she initiated her medical training at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands and obtained her doctor in medicine in 2004. The same year, she continued her training in internal medicine with subspecialty of infectious diseases. In 2014 she returned to her native island to provide care as an internist and infectious diseases specialist. Together with her colleagues they aim to improve quality of health care in Aruba.
Clinical activities:
main focus is implementing antibiotic stewardship program in the dr. Horacio E. Oduber Hospital
infectious diseases consultationOutpatient clinic for general internal medicine
Outpatient clinic for infectious diseases: managment and treatment of HIV, HBV, HCV, difficult to treat infections, multi-drug resistant infections, prosthetic joint infections, fever of unknown origen and
Tropical diseases with a special interest for arboviruses (DENV,CHIKV, ZIKV)
Recently transgender care is also provided
Other activities:Chief of the Antibiotic stewardship program
Member of the HIV Expert Group, Aruba
Member of the infection prevention team (Infectie preventie)
Guest lecturer at the Xavier University of Medicine
Research collaboration with AMC, UMC, ITM
Supervisor of medical students during elective science
Co-organizer of Symposium on antimicrobial stewardship 2015 and Symposium on ZikV infection, Aruba 2016
In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family and two handsome sons.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English, Papiamento, Spanish
Dr. Waterloo registered in in December 2011 as internal medicine specialist (University of Maastricht) with subspecialty geriatric medicine (Academical medical center Amsterdam). Afterwards he worked as internist-geriatrician in VU medical center in Amsterdam. During his specialization he was always interested in working on his mother island and as of September 2012 he started working in Aruba.
Activities: Chairman of the department of internal medicine
Chief trainer for interns of internal medicine from VU medical center in Amsterdam 2012-2025
Co-founder and geriatrician of the memory clinic (Centro di Memoria Aruba), located in MOB, Horacio Oduber Hospital
President of the medical ethical board (hospital committee)
Co-organizer DAS-clinic (Dutch Antillean Surinam medical conference) with subjects in internal medicine and rheumatology, Head organizer in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021. 2022 and 2023. Also mini DAS 2024 and 2025. Www.dasclinic.weebly.com
CMIO (chief medical information officer)
Medical manager for the hospital
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, Papiamento, Spanish, English
Intermediate: German
Elementary: French
Dr Bert Rodenburg (married, born 1979) has graduated as an internist with subspeciality infectious diseases in 2015 from the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He worked one year in The Netherlands (Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, Nijmegen) as a general internist and 4 months in Suriname (Diakonessenhuis, Paramaribo) as an internist-oncologist before coming to Aruba to work both in general internal medicine and infectious diseases. During his studies he has had various trainings in Latin America.
His emphasis is on patient oriented, individualized care, based on the newest scientific insights and guidelines.
Clinical activities comprise both in- and outpatient care within the full scope of internal medicine with a special focus – but not limited to – infectious diseases:
For example:Chronic viral infections, e.g. HIV, hepatitis B and C.
Difficult to treat infections, e.g. prostetic joint infections, opportunistic infections, deep seated infections, fever of unknown origin, invasive fungal infections, tropical infections.
Consultatory advise to other specialisms to adjust and streamline antibiotic use within the hospital. (A-team)
Further activities:Chairman of the Aruba HIV team
Member of the Antibiotic stewardship committee and A-team
Member of the committee which revises the local antibiotic guidelines to adjust therapy to the Aruban situation and to diminish antibiotic resistance.
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English
Intermediate: Spanish
Elementary: German
MD. Internal medicine, hematology, oncology.
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English
Elementary: Papiamento
Advanced: Dutch, English, German
Intermediary: Spanish, Papiamento, French
Elementary: Turkish
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English
MD. Internal medicine, hematology
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English, German
L. Kusmus
A. Wever
Pascale Ustar was born and raised in Holland.
Finished her allround nurse in 1991 at Canisius Hospital.
After studying and working , she came to Aruba in 2006.
In 2012 she specialized as diabetes nurse at the Anthonius Academy in Holland and works since oktober 2014 at the dr. Horacio Oduber Hospital. While working on the island, she got familiar with the culture and habits.
Tries to implement diabetes into patients life to everybodys satisfaction.
Loves to live a healthy and active life.
Languages
Advanced: Dutch, English, Papiamento
AIOS experience (Dutch spoken)
SPECIALTIES
The following specialties can be found in our group.
We all deliver general internal medicine care. As internists we are able to treat all diseases that do not require surgical interventions at a specialist level. For each internal medicine superspecialty we have one or more dedicated specialists that have the knowledge and experience. They offer advice to the other specialists of the group or take over the treatment if specialised care is needed. When appropriate they will consult university specialists abroad for further advice. This way we try to make sure that all patients receive the same high quality care.
EndocrinologyTreatment of endocrinological diseases: Diabetes mellitus type 1, hyperprolactinemia, thyroid diseases, diseases of adrenal glands, Diseases affecting: Hypophysis, pancreas, gonads
Specialist: S. Rahamat
Geriatric Medicine
Geriatric medicine is a specialty that focuses on elderly patients with several conditions at the same time. Mostly this is a combination of physical, psychological, functional and social problems. Common problems are gait disorders and falls, osteoporosis, polypharmacy (use of multiple medication), unexplained decline in daily activities, memory problems (Geheugenpoli, MOB building hospital), delirium, depression. For more information on the: Memory Clinic
Specialists: S. Waterloo and M. Smid
Geriatric nurse consulents: L. Kusmus, A. Wever
Diabetes
DM type 1
Difficult to treat DM type 2
Rare types of DM: LADA, MODY. For more information on the: Diabetes clinic
Specialists: K. Kelly, S. Waterloo, M. Smid, S. Rahamat
Diabetes Nurse: P. Ustar
Infectiology
Antimicrobial stewardship: Providing guidance to specialists to use appropriate antibiotics in the hospital. Expertise in treating chronic or difficult-to-treat- infections: Hepatitis B, C and HIV. Bone, heart valve and prothesis-related infections. Integration with the microbiology lab and public health Aruba to reduce the risks of communicable diseases.
Specialists: J. de Kort, B. Rodenburg, K. Kelly, M. Visschers
Hematology
The following diseases: Blood diseases, Bone marrow diseases, Diseases of the lymph nodes, Coagulation disorders, Hereditary disorders like sickle cell and thalassemia’s, Blood transfusion problems
Specialists: M. Ladenius, H. Roerdink (benign hematology is seen by other general internists)
Oncology
Treatment of patients with cancer and follow up of patients with cancer risk.
Counseling for genetic forms of cancer.
Specialists: M. Ladenius, S. Kordes, H. Roerdink
Rheumatology. The following diseases: Arthralgia (joint pain), reumatoïd artritis, spondyloartritis, auto-immuun diseases (like systemic lupus erythematosus and myositis), vasculitis. Specialists: R. Rellum, rheumatologist (location Sasaki building, next to Gloria cinema)
How can I get an appointment?
In our office we attend people that have been referred by a general practitioner to our practice, so you will need to bring a referral letter. This letter will then be screened by a specialist to check how urgent the patient should be seen and by which specialist. If a patient should be seen urgently the general practitioner calls the specialist. Based on the decision of the specialist the secretary calls the patient and plans the appointment. You can find the address in our contact page.
When I visit the clinic for the first time, what do I need to know?
Your first visit will take 30 minutes. We will go through your medical history, the medication that you are taking. It is crucial that you provide us with the detailed medication, otherwise we will not be able to start treatment as we need to consider interactions. After going through your history we will do a physical examination as required and plan additional investigations. The first or second visit your GP will receive a letter containing the treatment plan. Please come 20 minutes before the first appointment, as we will need time to register and prepare the file.
What are the rules to the scheduled appointments?
We have scheduled appointments. We strive to be on time always. We aim to see our patients within 30 minutes of their scheduled time. If we do not meet this time please fill in a patient survey. This will help us improve. If you are late or not able to come please call our office.
How long do I need to be followed by the specialist?
As long as you need specialist care and that differs. Some people have 1 or 2 visits just to exclude a disease or follow up after an admission. Sometimes a general practitioner asks to help treat a disease that is normally treated by GP’s like hypertension or diabetes, to help get the patient on target. This will generally take a couple of weeks to months. Only people that have rare diseases or difficult to treat conditions that GP’s normally do not treat will stay in the hands of a specialist for as long as the disease exists.
What if I do not show up or do not follow treatment?
We are all human and taking medications and visiting a doctor is sometimes something we forget. Your specialist will understand if you forget once or twice. If you forget a lot of times it is usually a sign that something is wrong. We as specialists usually know pretty well how a patient should react on medication, so we usually are well aware when somebody is not following treatment. If you are not following treatment we will make it a topic for discussion and will try to take away barriers to follow treatment. If it is not possible to take away barriers then the specialist might refer you back to your general practitioner or a colleague to take away the barriers, before continuing treatment.
What if I cannot connect with my specialist?
We try to match the patient to the specialist that knows most about the disease. We strive to give the best care to all our patients equally. But everybody is different and sometimes the communication between you and your doctor may not be what you expected. It is good to talk about this with your doctor. We are professionals and never will judge a patient if he or she speaks openly about his or her feelings. Actually, it is important to discuss this, because it is in your interest to build a trustworthy relationship with the best specialist for your disease. It still may be possible that after discussing the subject together, that you still want to change specialists. Your specialist will then help you to find a colleague.
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