Healthcare transition and healthcare technology in practice

On Tuesday, 14 April 2026, DASH (UMCG), the Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI, and Aletta are organizing a joint day on healthcare transition and the use of healthcare technology in practice.

This event brings together researchers, students, and healthcare professionals around one central question: which healthcare technologies are truly usable in practice, what stands in the way of their use in daily work, and what next steps are needed in research, implementation, collaboration, and education?

Who is it for

The day is primarily intended for PhD candidates, master’s students, postdocs, and WO and HBO students working on questions related to healthcare technology, digital care, implementation, or healthcare innovation.

MBO students and professionals from hospitals, residential care, and home care are also very welcome. Their practical experience is essential to better understand what works in day-to-day practice, where things get stuck, and what knowledge or collaboration is still missing.

What can you expect?

The day consists of three parts, which you can attend separately or in combination.

Morning program

The morning focuses on practice. Healthcare professionals from hospitals, residential care, and home care will be in conversation with each other and with the audience about technology in their daily work. What really helps? What takes time without offering clear added value? Where are the bottlenecks in implementation, collaboration, training, or organization?

The aim of this session is to bring practical questions and research closer together and to sharpen where concrete opportunities for follow-up may lie. The discussion will be moderated by Job van ’t Veer, Professor of Practice in Digital Innovation in Health and Welfare at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences.

The panel will include healthcare professionals from different parts of care practice. The final panel composition will be announced soon. We can already mention Ingrid Breuker, Program Manager of Anders Werken in de Zorg

Lunch program - posters and discussion

Around lunchtime, PhD candidates and master’s students will present their research during the poster session. This part of the program is intended to make work in progress visible, gather focused feedback, and create new connections between research, practice, and education.

The poster session is therefore not only a presentation moment, but also a working session: what resonates, what needs sharpening, and what collaboration or application seems most promising?

Afternoon program - workshops

In the afternoon, four small-scale workshops will take place. These are organized around concrete themes in research and practice. The workshops focus on exchange, case-based discussion, and practical applicability.

Interactive co-design workshop
Speaker: Charissa Roossien, Assistant Professor in Medical Device Design

How do you design technology together with the people who will ultimately work with it or live with it? In this workshop, co-design takes center stage as a way to better connect with practice. Relevant for participants working on development, usability, or alignment with everyday care practice. You will gain insight into how shared design choices influence the quality and usability of healthcare technology.

Implementation of healthcare technology: organizational change & management
Speakers: Marjolein van Offenbeek (online) en Maarten Lahr

Many healthcare technologies remain stuck in a pilot or small-scale trial. This workshop explores what is needed to make technology truly work in everyday organizations, work processes, and decision-making.

Elisabeth will present anonymized examples of challenges that often emerge in these kinds of projects. Based on these cases, participants will work in small groups to brainstorm possible solutions and discuss how such barriers can be addressed in practice.

This workshop is relevant for participants involved in implementation, scaling, organizational change, or innovation management. You will leave with a clearer view of common implementation barriers and with concrete ideas for how to respond to them.

Digital care across the care chain: what works in practice?
Speakers: Anne Hoekman, PhD candidate, and Tarannom Mehri, PhD candidate, UMCG

This workshop focuses on digital care in collaboration across different parts of the care chain. Where does implementation run into problems, and what does good alignment require between organizations, professionals, and systems? Relevant for participants working on integrated care, transfer of care, collaboration, or digital processes across organizational boundaries. You will take away examples, bottlenecks, and points of attention that directly relate to feasibility in practice.

Interdisciplinary collaboration in medical technology (Full) You can no longer sign up for this session Elisabeth Wilhelm, Associate Professor, Healthcare robotics bij Faculty of Science and Engineering

This workshop focuses on collaboration between different disciplines in the development, assessment, and application of medical technology. Relevant for participants working at the intersection of technology, care, research, and implementation.

Registration

Registration is still open. You can sign up for the morning program, the lunch program, and the afternoon program, or for any combination of these parts.

Participants joining the afternoon program will also select a workshop preference during registration.

This allows you to tailor the program to your own interests, research, practical question, or learning goals.

Outcomes and follow-up

This day is intended to connect practice, research, and education more concretely. You will leave with sharper practical insights, feedback on ongoing work, new contacts, and a clearer view of possible next steps in collaboration, implementation, or follow-up research.

To make visible what really continues after the event, we will ask participants, through an email form, to provide brief input one week in advance, immediately afterward, and again several months later. This way, we are not only looking back on the day itself, but also at what this event has actually set in motion.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Program

10:00 - 10:30 | Check-in
10:30 - 10:45 | Welcome
10:45 - 11:30 | Panel discussion
11:30 - 12:00 | Lunch & networking
12:05 - 12:40 | Poster round 1 (posters 1-7)
12:40 - 12:45 | Switch
12:45 - 13:20 | Poster round 2 (posters 8-14)
13:20 - 13:40 | Lunch & networking
13:40 - 13:50 | Workshop introduction
13:50 - 14:00 | Move to workshop rooms
14:00 - 15:30 | Parallel workshops (4 sessions)
15:30 - 15:45 | Closing plenary
15:45 | End of program