Time for the third interview with an alumnus. This time we talked to Susanne Cornelis-Klitsie. She completed our bachelor's degree in Health Sciences, after which she on to complete the European Master in Health Economics and Management (EU-HEM) in 2016.
How did your career start after the Eu-HEM?
My first job was in London with Minddistrict, a company that develops e-health tooling for remote mental healthcare. I spent a year there as Project Manager.
Back in the Netherlands, in 2018 I joined my present employer, BeterDichtbij. We facilitate communication in healthcare. Through the BeterDichtbij app or video call, everyone can have safe and accessible contact with care providers. The Association of Collaborating General Hospitals (SAZ) and the Dutch Hospitals Association (NVZ) are the key participants in the company behind the BeterDichtbij platform. Now, 44 hospitals in the Netherlands use BeterDichtbij. I started as a Project Manager, but because we were still a very small organisation, I did everything: from marketing to the service desk. Now I am Product Owner and responsible for the further development of our product. We recently launched a second product: a digital platform on which care providers can contact each other.
Why did you choose Eu-HEM at the time?
The bachelor's degree was very focused on the Netherlands, while I was keen to look at healthcare from an international perspective. I did Eu-HEM in Innsbruck and Rotterdam. At EUR, I noticed that scientific articles were the starting point for our studies and that in Innsbruck people were key to healthcare management.
Do you have good memories of your studies?
Absolutely. I did a board year with student association FBMG (the predecessor of SHARE). That was great fun. Among other things, we organised a study trip to Morocco, a skiing trip and the Health Business Week. We also made an almanac and much, much more. I'm still in touch with my fellow board members. From Eu-HEM, I mainly remember there being a nice mix of people from different cultures.
Anything else you would like to mention?
I'm really pleased that I did these studies, so I’d like to give something back. In my time, digitisation was not covered at all in the bachelor’s degree and only in one course in the master's degree. E-health is now an integral part of healthcare. I think it would be nice to bring e-health practice to the study programme. I’m in talks with Marleen de Mul about doing a guest lecture, contributing to a course or developing a case study about digitisation in healthcare. Watch this space!
In conversation with... you?
Do you have fond memories of your time at SAG/iBMG/ESHPM that you’d like to share with your fellow alumni? If so, please contact us at alumni@eshpm.eur.nl.