Jozien Bensing

Josina Maria "Jozien" Bensing (12 March 1950 – 1 June 2026) was a Dutch clinical psychologist. She was director of the (NIVEL) between 1985 and 2008. From 1993, Bensing was a professor of clinical and healthcare psychology at Utrecht University. She was a winner of the 2006 Spinoza Prize.

Life and career Bensing was born in Tilburg on 12 March 1950. She studied clinical psychology at Utrecht University. Bensing obtained a PhD at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1991, her thesis was titled: "Doctor-patient communication and the quality of care. An observation study into affective and instrumental behavior in general practice". In 1984, she became acting director. The next year the Dutch Institute for General Practice became the (NIVEL) and Bensing became the director. She served in this position until 2008 and then continued as an honorary research fellow. She has done research on large quantities of video recorded conversations between doctors and patients and has built a database of over 16,000 entries.

Awards and honours Bensing was awarded the George Engel Award by the American Academy on Physician and Patients in 2003, and was the first non-American to obtain it.

In 2006, she was one of four winners of the Dutch Spinoza Prize and received a €1.5 million grant. The awarding commission cited her "multidisciplinary research into the communication between doctors and patients, and her internationally used research method for quantifying non-verbal communication".

In 2004, Bensing was named an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. In 2015 she was made a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.