Technology

Tess Osborne
Tess Osborne is a social geographer with a focus in two connecting areas: first, exploring the application of technology as a research tool and in everyday life, including biosensing, digital worlds, and GIS; second, examining questions around embodiment and health and wellbeing, particularly how these relate to the built environment. She is currently working on the Meaningful Mobility project to develop and implement new approaches to enhance research of mobility and health in later life.

Durk-Jouke van der Zee
Durk-Jouke van der Zee is Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Groningen. His research focuses on health care systems engineering. Research themes include hospital planning & control, and the design of care chains and networks - thereby linking pre-hospital and intrahospital care services. Project examples include development of cost-effective organizational models for regional acute stroke care, big data analysis of patient flows in care networks seeking to improve care plans and resource use, strategic staff planning and ambulance network design and operation.

Extra keywords: Health Services, Quantitative Methods, Health Organization, Health System Engenineering

Marjolein van Offenbeek
Studied and got her PhD in organisational psychology in Amsterdam before she moved to Groningen to engage in interdisciplinary, applied research in healthcare settings. Her research focuses on the implementation and effectiveness of innovations in health care management and organisation. A central theme is how to realise a dynamic fit between the innovation content and context on the one hand and the implementation strategy on the other hand. One line of research concentrates on new occupations, job differentiation and professional projects in healthcare. The second line concerns health information systems and Ehealth implementation.

Extra keyword: Implementation

Albert Boonstra
Albert Boonstra is a full professor of Information Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. His research interests include the implementation of advanced information technologies in healthcare environments, especially the socio-political dimensions. He is interested in the transformative potential of digital technologies in healthcare, including eHealth, Internet of Things, Electronic Health Records and Telecare. He presented his work at international conferences and is author of three books and more than 60 international journal articles. He is senior editor of Information Systems Journal. He is research fellow of research school SOM and of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health.

Extra keyword: Implementation

Paul Buijs
I am an assistant professor at the Department of Operations (Faculty of Economics and Business). My research focuses on the design and application of novel logistics solutions, among others in the healthcare sector. Logistics played a critically important role in managing the coronavirus pandemic, for example by distributing scarce personal protective equipment and transferring patients out of hospitals in local coronavirus hotspots. The lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic are likely valuable for managing healthcare operations in normal times too.

Extra keyword: Healthcare operations

Govert Schoof
I am Govert Schoof, Head of the spatial expertise center of the RUG, the Geodienst. We work closely with the great Aletta team on technical (analytics, software, visualization) projects. I have experience working on healthcare innovations (at a software company) and I am currently working on a tech start-up besides my daily duties. Coming soon!
If you are working with spatial data you can contact us for -FREE- support at geodienst rug.nl. Yes, our team is literally waiting to help you with data handling, analytics or any other challenges you might have. More info on rug.nl/geo

If you are thinking about innovation or software development but you're not sure how to bring your idea to live.. all it takes is a cup of coffee! :) I am happy to help. Shoot me a message and let's move things forward!

Extra keyword: Spatial

Jenny van Doorn
My name is Jenny van Doorn, I'm professor of Services Marketing at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen. My research focuses on the use of technology in services, in particular the use of robots and artificial intelligence. Use of such technology becomes also more and more common in healthcare and is seen as a potential solution for the challenges that the health care system faces given the increasing health care demand due to ageing populations and personnel shortages. The current generation of technological devices often already goes beyond a mere functional role and also engages its user on a social level, such as a robot doing physical exercises with the elderly or devices using speech technology to remind their users to e.g. take their medicine. In my research I explore how consumers react to such technology, and whether there are ways to overcome reluctance that in particular elderly people may feel to use it.

Extra keyword: Robots and chatbots in healthcare

Oskar Roemeling
Oskar is an Assistant Professor at the department of Innovation Management & Strategy of the Faculty of Economics and Business. He has a background in industrial and organizational psychology (MSc.) and human resource management (MSc.). Oskar obtained his PhD in the domain of Operations Management focusing on the use of Lean Manufacturing in healthcare environments. His main research interest are the application of continuous improvement methods in healthcare as well as the adoption of value based healthcare. In addition, Oskar is interested in more general healthcare management relates issues.

Jetse Goris
Together with his colleagues, Jetse has pioneered a human centered design approach to innovating health care and medical education at the University Medical Center of Groningen. This culminated in the founding of the UMCG innovation support Center. For Aletta he was part of the team that developed and executed the minor More Healthy Years, Innovating Public Health and the Aletta Regional Year Challenge. He currently works at the Master Design Driven Innovation at NHL Stenden. In his spare time he loves playing drums and wathing birds.

Wim Krijnen
Wim Krijnen received his PhD in 1993 in the field of psychometrics. Since 2013 is he a professor (Lector) in Applied Statistics and Research Methods within the group Ageing and Allied Health Care at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, The Netherlands. Since 2012 is he a lector in Statistics at the faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen. He supervises several PhD students FAITH Research (funded by SIA-SPRONG). FAITH is the abbreviation of Frailty by Assessment, Intervention and Technology towards Health and entails the development of an infrastructure of research on frail and vulnerable populations. The FAITH consortium is a consortium of the professorships of the northern Universities of Applied Sciences (Hanzehogeschool and NHL-Stenden) with expertise on frail elderly and 25 partners ranging from care organisations, SMEs and health insurers. He is interested in high level applied multidimensional statistical methods and their usefulness for solving health problems such as frailty.

Hans Drenth
Hans Drenth (PhD, PT) is professor (lector) of “Short-term care and interprofessional collaboration in frail older people” in the research group “Healthy ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing” at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen. His research focuses on effective strategies for short-term admission, such as geriatric rehabilitation care, geriatric-psychiatry and/or specialized care from the nursing home for older people living at home. The aim of this is to allow (pre) frail older people to continue living at home longer and, above all, better while retaining functional capacity and autonomy. Measures in the field of exercise, nutrition and in the psychosocial domain are important strategies to influence the process of frailty. A broad, integrated approach, possibly supported by relevant technology and interprofessional collaboration is essential.

Hans is specialized in motor function of frail older people and people with dementia and obtained a double doctorate at the RU Groningen and the VU Brussels with the thesis “Motor function, paratonia and glycation cross-linked in older people”. From this PhD project the international joint research group (IJRG) Movement-Related impairment in Ageing, in short ‘Move in Age’ was emerged. This IJRG research aims to unravel the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, their consequences in functional decline and the development of preventive and therapeutic strategies to counteract paratonia, a distinctive form of hypertonia in dementia.

In addition, Hans works as a geriatric physiotherapist at ZuidOostZorg, Care and Knowledge Center for elderly care in Friesland, the Netherlands.

Job van 't Veer
Dr. Job van 't Veer is professor Digital Innovation in Healthcare at the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. As a researcher, he is always focused on the social participation of vulnerable groups, such as people with mental illness, mild intellectual disorders, and dementia. 

Since 2012, he has focused on digital innovation in healthcare and welfare. Within all research projects, the emphasis is on a design-research approach: how can you, together with clients, residents, and professionals, innovatively and possibly digitally, improve healthcare and welfare? Apart from supervising PhD-students in their design research projects, he is main author of the book ‘Ontwerpen voor Zorg en Welzijn’ (Design for Healthcare & Social Work), which is used in about 50 bachelor-programs in Dutch/Belgian Universities of Applied Sciences.

Job van ‘t Veer is co-program leader of SIA SPRONG FAITH research, a network of more than 40 healthcare organizations and companies that generates and shares knowledge on frailty. He is associated in many (Northern) networks and projects that involve the topic of health technology, like HEALTHNoord, HTRIC, AndersWerkenindeZorg, TZA Drenthe, NWA eHealth Junior, Bridge2Health, PIT and MEE Lab.