Dean Tanya Bondarouk of the University of Twente (UT) Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS) and Vilans Directors, Mirella Minkman and Erwin Bleumink have signed a partnership agreement on ‘Value-Driven Digital Care’. To better connect knowledge with practice, both parties have been jointly engaged in research projects on this very important social topic.
Henk Herman Nap, Vilans Digital Care Expert: “Digital care offers many opportunities. It can support the well-being and health of citizens and ease the workload on healthcare professionals but there are also many questions and obstacles. That’s why it’s so important to gather and share knowledge on how to use technology in a sensible and responsible manner, especially when you consider the major challenges facing healthcare now and in the future.”
As part of the agreement, Nap will serve as a link between the two parties by working part-time at the University of Twente on the theme ‘Value-Driven Digital Care’ in addition to his work at Vilans. This will result in stronger collaboration on various research projects, such as value assessment of digital care in practice, research on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, research on the ethical aspects of eHealth, and the design of human-centred healthcare technology.
A wide range of opportunities for further research and knowledge sharing were presented during a mini-symposium to mark the collaboration.bout
Real Impact
Dean Bondarouk of the University of Twente: “This is an important collaboration because healthcare research helps to achieve real impact of healthcare delivery. It goes beyond just publishing research papers. This lands on very fertile ground to further strengthen our tradition in conducting research in the field of e-Health.”
Gerben Westerhof, Department Chair of Psychology, Health and Technology at UT highlights another important value shared by Vilans and UT: “We both believe that technology is more than just a tool to be deployed. It is important to realise that people are always at the forefront when it comes to development and deployment of technology. This shared value between Vilans and UT is very important in our collaboration.”
Vilans Director, Minkman adds, “Because we will be working together across broader topics on digital care, this is an important step. We are building the bridge between academia and practice, and with our results, making a real impact on the lives of people who need care and the care providers in the field.
