Our current themes

Currently, our research and expertise focuses on the following seven themes:

• Cost effectiveness/insurance

Our experts in this field are interested in risk management and cost effectiveness within health systems. On the one hand, their work focuses on the healthcare sector as a whole, resulting in studies which have widespread applications in the fields of insurance scheme design, implementation of new medical treatment and drugs, and value-based healthcare. On the other hand, they investigate current issues within organizations, such as the implications of sector wide developments for internal decision-making processes and managing tensions between medical professional and business considerations. Our in-house knowledge serves the higher goal of creating sustainable health systems that provide effective medical treatment and financial coverage for all who need this.

• Data-driven health

Our experts in the field of data-driven health apply cutting-edge econometric tools, methods of causal inference, and other quantitative methods to health-related data. The members of this expert group are interested in different aspects of health economics and policy, including the demand and supply of healthcare, health insurance, socioeconomic determinants of health, health technology assessment, and health effects of economic policies.

• e-Health

Our e-Health experts contribute to the knowledge development on the application of health technologies: how e-health can be designed collaboratively, can be integrated within changing care processes and can be appropriated by citizens in a way that suits them. This knowledge and expertise contributes to the realization of blended care models that are necessary for perpetuating the accessibility and quality of our healthcare system and making the system more sustainable.

• Health inequalities

Our experts in this field aim to understand why some people are healthier and live longer than others. In particular, they investigate the role of people's different genetics, environmental factors and health behaviors in determining health inequalities. Eventually, understanding what causes one group to be healthier than another guides policy-makers to interventions that foster a healthier life for everybody.

• Health interventions

Health interventions create conditions for individuals to improve their health. To accomplish such improvements, our behavioral scientists are interested in interventions that support or alter the actions that individuals take with regard to their health, for example the decision to consume (un)healthy foods or to engage in more physical exercise. At a broader level, our researchers study legislative changes, the spread of health information, and other public policy programs that enable individuals to reach better health outcomes.

• Lifestyle / Healthy aging

How do people live a long and healthy life without being at risk of serious illnesses? To this end, our experts study the economic, social and political determinants of mental and physical well-being over the life course. To delve deeper into the fundamentals of healthy aging, we also accommodate researchers who study the way in which people live (lifestyle behavior) and where people live (the environment). Getting a grip on what entails healthy aging eventually leads to a longer, healthier and happier life for many.

• Networked Health Organizations and Professionals

Our experts in this field take an interdisciplinary approach in examining the roles of professionals in networked healthcare delivery. We are interested in how new forms of inter-organizational collaboration are managed in health care and the impact of such collaborations on professionals’ job satisfaction and well-being. Our experts seek to explore whether, when and how (new) networked forms of collaboration affect the demands placed on clinical and other professionals, and how these professionals cope with the resulting challenges. We aim to identify what kinds of expertise are needed to develop not only inter-organizational, but also cross-sectoral collaboration, and how to these competencies can be organized; what modes of governance best fit the chosen form of collaboration, and what kinds of supporting systems will best enable a networked health care system. 

Would you like to benefit from our expertise? Feel free to contact us.