Dr Barend ter Haar Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award from BHTA

The British Healthcare Trades Association has awarded their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award to local entrepreneur and educator Dr Barend ter Haar, acknowledging the major role he has played within the Healthcare Industry.

With over 40 years of experience in the industry, Barend has achieved global recognition as a result of his work, his training, and his knowledge within the Assistive Technology, Decontamination, and Healthcare markets.

His contribution started through medical publishing, later serving as a Director of the BHTA for eight years, being part of the team that laid the foundation for its new constitution of open management. 

Dr ter Haar has been part of the ISO Seating Standards committee since its inception in 1998, leading the group for the Flammability Standards published in 2012 and 2014. He also led the ISO Standard on Guidelines for Pressure Mapping, and is currently working on standards for positioning belt placement and for seating related attachments to wheelchairs. In the decontamination world, he is the Convenor of the ISO and CEN Sterilisers Groups for their terminology standards, and participates in the washer-disinfector and steriliser standards.

He was a key member of the small Posture and Mobility team for several years that helped grow the group from 200 members to 900. With the help of his industry knowledge, as well as his marketing and business skills, the PMG Conference has now grown to over 70 exhibitors and 500 delegates from around the country. 

Since co-founding BES Rehab Ltd in 1993, Dr ter Haar has achieved multiple successes introducing innovative and unique products to the UK, as well as serving as a mentor and advisor to his staff. Under Dr ter Haar’s guidance, BES has continually strived to offer healthcare solutions for NHS hospitals, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Over the past 23 years, BES’ core ideologies have been to promote education and solutions to enable independent living, and provide better quality of care.

The Convenor of the ISO Working Groups for Wheelchairs and Seating Systems, Dr Lloyd Walker says of Dr ter Haar, “He is passionate about achieving good outcomes for people with disability, based on sound science and practice, and his influence internationally has been substantial.”

After receiving the award, Dr Barend ter Haar said, “It has been a privilege to meet with the talents and brains participating on the standards committees, and a great joy to share the knowledge that I have acquired from these people in the education I have been providing around the world. The biggest reward has been the opportunity to share knowledge in a way that is enjoyed by the recipients.”  

You can listen to Dr ter Haar talking about his work with the community and lifetime achievement award in this interview with BSR radio.