From ethics to digitalisation in healthcare: from the coming semester, the university will be offering a Master’s degree programme in Health Services Research. In this interview, programme director Lena Ansmann explains why this degree programme is important and what it aims to teach.
The Master’s programme in ‘Health Services Research’ will launch for the first time in the coming winter semester. What do you hope to achieve with this new programme?
The degree programme addresses a wide range of issues relating to healthcare. For example, our graduates will help to improve the care provided to patients and specific population groups, such as older people or those facing social disadvantage, in the future. The degree programme is also research-oriented and interdisciplinary in nature. We use a broad spectrum of scientific methods – ranging from interviews with those affected to health economic analyses. This includes both qualitative and quantitative research methods as well as those of evidence synthesis. This means that our students learn to systematically identify existing studies on the same research question, critically assess their quality and summarise their findings. This is important, for example, for clinicians or decision-makers who require a systematically organised overview of the diverse body of literature.
What makes this degree programme special?
Health services research is a young discipline. And our department is a unique institution in Germany, comprising nine divisions and around 80 staff members. Our students benefit from the broad methodological and substantive expertise of this research focus within the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, which was only founded in 2012. The curriculum also covers, for example, ethical issues, digitalisation in healthcare, the organisation of healthcare provision, as well as topics relating to patient-centred care and patient safety. A degree programme of this kind does not yet exist in the north-west.
What can students expect?
As we are offering this degree programme for the first time, students have greater scope to help shape it. We are offering 25 places – which means we can provide our students with intensive support and maintain close personal contact. Students studying with us can also set their own individual areas of specialisation and explore these in greater depth, for example, through a professional placement, a research project or their Master’s thesis. We also offer the opportunity to gain initial conference experience as part of a field trip.
Who can apply for the degree programme?
In principle, anyone who holds a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant degree programme, such as the health or social sciences. An important requirement is that prospective students have already acquired a wide range of skills in research methods during their Bachelor’s degree programme.
And what happens after graduation?
Graduates can, on the one hand, pursue a career in research at universities and non-university institutions. However, academic roles in other sectors are also possible, for example in clinical settings such as rehabilitation centres or Public Health Departments, or with decision-makers in the healthcare sector, such as the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, government departments or research institutes run by health insurance funds.
Interview: Constanze Böttcher
