How to live a healthy life seems evident enough. It’s a combination of things one should definitely do (like sleep well, eat healthy, exercise, limit stress) and things one should better avoid (like gaming through the night, deep-fried mars bars, drugs). It’s also widely acknowledged that healthy behaviour is difficult, not only because of personal traits, but because our social and physical environments shape our behaviour.
This course builds the bridge between two interrelated, but oftentimes separately addressed problems: 1) how current health care systems can adapt to drastically changed care landscapes, and 2) how individuals can stay healthy. To overcome the challenges current health systems face, we need an interconnected way of thinking about both individual health and system health.
In this course we unravel the intricate interplay between individual behaviour, system factors, (medical) technology, and lifestyle interventions. We draw on a variety of network approaches that foreground how ‘things’ and ‘actors’ interact with one another and come together to produce particular health effects, like obesity or successful weight control, as well as structural elements, like reimbursement rules or outdoor fitness facilities in parks. Personal health exists in a network where system factors like social environment and technologies have performative aspects. For instance, Ozempic co-shapes weight control practices.
In this course we explore what would need to change on a system level. To visualise how we could support the required healthcare transformation course participants build a prototype of an intervention aimed at supporting individuals to be co-producers of health.
Tjerk Jan Schuitmaker-Warnaar
All lectures will take place on-campus and we assume you can be physically present during the scheduled hours. You can find the timetable on Datanose.
Registration is possible for students participating in an Honours programme. The registration for the Honours courses will start on June 5, 10 am - June 11, 11.59 pm. You can register through the online registration form that will appear on Honoursmodules IIS. (registration is NOT through SIS)
Please note: There is no guarantee for placement if you register after June 11, so make sure you register on time. You will hear which course(s) you are registered for before June 30.
For questions about registration, please contact us at: Honours-iis@uva.nl