Cees Smit (1951) studied business economics at the Free University in Amsterdam. From 1978 till now, he has been member of the research project ‘Haemophilia in The Netherlands’ at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC). From 1987 till 1998 he was co-ordinator of the Netherlands Haemophilia Society, from 1998 till 2002, he worked in the mental health area. In January, 2003 he received an honorary doctorate from the college of deans of the University of Amsterdam in recognition for his work on patient participation, haemophilia and medical biotechnology. In recent years, he wrote several books on ageing with chronic diseases, like haemophilia and hiv. ‘Ageing with haemophilia’, was published in English in 2007. The book ‘Ageing with hiv’ is written in Dutch and was published on December 1, 2009 during World Aids Day. In September 2015, he published together with Annemarie de Knecht – van Eekelen the book ‘De macht van de patiënt, baas over je eigen ziekte’. The book is so far only available in Dutch, but the English title would be ‘The power of the patient, boss of your own disease’. One of the issues discussed in this book is the increasing cooperation between patients, researchers and industry in the drug development process (Patient 3.0). For further information: info@smitvisch.nl,  www.smitvisch.nl