Fit for the Future: New Research Centre Explores Participation as Key to Healthcare Transformation

Working together for better healthcare: A new research centre of the University Medicine at MLU Halle will investigate how public participation influences the quality, acceptance, and efficacity of healthcare research. In close cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, the team will also investigate public perceptions of the digitalization of healthcare.

Demographic change, technological innovation, rising expectations, social inequality, and increasing cost pressure – all these developments pose major challenges for our healthcare system. In order to tackle these challenges, healthcare research also has to change. One promising approach is to more actively involve key interest groups, including members of civil society, but also medical practitioners and representatives of health-related industries.

“Science about people should also take place together with people – in other words, with the participation of those whom it is supposed to benefit. Participation is essential if we want to properly recognize and respond to people’s needs, expectations, and experiences. It also ensures that research remains relevant and beneficial while respecting cultural sensitivities”, explains Franziska Fink, a scientist in the health service research unit of MLU’s University Medicine. She will lead the new Competence Center for Participation Research and Transformation in Healthcare (KPTG) to explore how to successfully integrate participation into medical research and the positive effects this can have.

Collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Understanding expectations about the healthcare system and how it is perceived requires understanding the cultural, social, and historical factors that shape these perceptions. For this reason, MLU’s health service research unit has teamed up with researchers at the MPI for Social Anthropology. Together they have founded  the Medical Anthropology and Digital Transformation Lab (MADT Lab) with the aim of deepening collaborations between anthropology and the health sciences in research, teaching and public outreach.

“We examine how ideas of health and elderly care are changing as a result of digitalization, what advantages digital care offers and for whom, and whether other needs are being left unmet as a result. In addition, we want to better understand what kinds of social visions inspire or are inspired by the development of new care technologies”, elaborates Julia Vorhölter, Head of the MADT Lab at the MPI. She and six doctoral students are pursuing projects that study the effects of digital care tools at various sites in the region.

KPTG is closely linked with two other consortium projects of MLU’s University Medicine on the role of participation and digitalization in the transformation of healthcare in Saxony-Anhalt: TDG – Translation Region for Digitalized Health Services and TPG – Innovation Region for the Digital Transformation of Care and Health Services. 

KPTG is funded through the end of 2027 with €948,000 from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).