Willem Karel Dicke

Willem Karel Dicke (15 February 1905, Dordrecht – 1962, De Bilt) was a Dutch paediatrician who was the first to develop the gluten-free diet and to show that in coeliac disease some types of flour cause relapse.^[1]

From 1922 until 1929 Willem Dicke studied medicine in Leiden, then specialized in paediatry in Juliana Children's Hospital in Hague from 1929 until 1933. In 1936, being just 31 years old, he became the medical director of the hospital. In the 1940s and 1950s he went on to develop the gluten-free diet, changing the way of treatment and destinies of children sick with coeliac disease. In 1957 he was appointed a professor of Utrecht University and became a medical director of Wilhelmina Children's Hospital.

Netherlands' Society of Gastroenterology had instituted in his honor a decoration to reward the pioneering research in the field, and Willem was the first to receive the gold Dicke Medal.^[2]

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