Biography
I did my Bachelor study at the University of Maastricht, where I followed the Arts and Culture bachelor program. This program examines the complex interactions between science, culture, politics and the arts in Western society in a broad range of settings and therefore has a strong interdisciplinary focus (drawing from Science & Technology Studies, cultural studies, media studies and philosophy).
After finishing my Bachelor, I followed the newly developed research master CAST (Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology), also at Maastricht University. The research master trains young academics to do research into three important domains of modern culture and their interrelations: the arts, science and technology.
The master is based on the master-apprentice model, in which students work closely together with leading and highly experienced senior researchers. Teaching of research methods is integrated in doing hands-on research, and the key theoretical approaches of the field are taught on the basis of empirical work that students are actively engaged in. The master enabled me to gain much experience into conducting qualitative research in various empirical settings and domains.
In 2006 I followed an internship of four months at the Rathenau Institute, where I investigated user experiences with early Ambient Intelligence-applications in a variety of domains. The internship resulted in the publication of the report De Gebruiker Centraal? Onderzoek naar gebruikerservaringen met ambient intelligence, which was published by the Rathenau.
I started working at the Institute of Health Policy and Management in 2008, where I was involved in the project Academic Collaborative Centers for Public Health. This project was finished at the beginning of 2011 and I’ve successfully defended my PhD on March 1st 2013.
Fields of Interest & Projects
My PhD research focused on how researchers, policy makers and professionals are coordinating their activities within the structural collaborative format of the Academic Collaborative Centers for Public Health (ACCs). The ACCs are long-term collaborations between Public Health Services, university departments and other relevant organizations. Their aim is twofold: on the one hand, enabling better research uptake and use of evidence-based methods in public health policy and practice organizations, on the other hand provide the incentives for health research to be increasingly targeted at local problems as experienced by policy makers and professionals.
In my PhD research I empirically analyzed these structural partnerships in several ways: by focusing on their general development as well as an in-depth investigation of particular collaborative projects. Theoretically, I use several concepts to understand these processes, such as the notions of ‘boundary organizations’ (Guston, 1999), ‘front stage and back stage settings’(Goffman, 1990), ‘hybrid management’ (Miller, 2001), ‘Mode 2 science’ (Gibbons et al, 1994) and ‘communities of practice’ (Wenger, 1998).
Currently I am working on a post-doc project entitled 'Exploring healthcare professionals’ understanding of the experiences and practical challenges of chronically ill patients through the Imitation Game'.
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management
- wehrens@eshpm.eur.nl
- Location
- Burg. Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam
More information
Work
- Robert Borst, Rik Wehrens & Roland Bal (2023) - “And when will you install the new water pump?”: disconcerted reflections on how to be a ‘good’ Global Health scholar - Globalization and Health, 19 (1) - doi: 10.1186/s12992-023-00919-8 - [link]
- Chiara Carboni, Rik Wehrens, Romke van der Veen & Antoinette de Bont (2023) - Eye for an AI: More-than-seeing, fauxtomation, and the enactment of uncertain data in digital pathology - Social Studies of Science - doi: 10.1177/03063127231167589
- Robert Borst, Rik Wehrens & Roland Bal (2022) - Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis - International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 11 (12), 2793-2804 - doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2022.6424 - [link]
- Erna Scholtes, Hester van de Bovenkamp, Marjolijn Heerings, Nada Akrouh & Rik Wehrens (2022) - Verhalen vertellen: Borstkankerzorg verbeteren door Patiëntervaringsverhalen te benutten
- Rik Wehrens, Anna Essén, Ariel D. Stern, Christoffer Bjerre Haase, Josip Car, Felix Greaves, Dragana Paparova, Steven Vandeput & David Bates (2022) - Health app policy: international comparison of nine countries’ approaches - npj Digital Medicine, 5 (1), 1-10 - doi: 10.1038/s41746-022-00573-1 - [link]
- Robert A.J. Borst, Rik Wehrens, Roland Bal & Maarten Olivier Kok (2022) - From sustainability to sustaining work: What do actors do to sustain knowledge translation platforms? - Social Science and Medicine, 296 - doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114735 - [link]
- Hilco J. van Elten, Sandra Sülz, Erik M. van Raaij & Rik Wehrens (2022) - Big Data Health Care Innovations: Performance Dashboarding as a Process of Collective Sensemaking - Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24 (2) - doi: 10.2196/30201 - [link]
- Marthe Stevens, Rik Wehrens, Johanna Kostenzer, Anne Marie Jansen & Antoinette de Bont (2022) - Why Personal Dreams Matter: How professionals affectively engage with the promises surrounding data-driven healthcare in Europe - Big Data & Society, 9 (1) - doi: 10.1177/20539517211070698 - [link]
- Rik Wehrens, Lieke Oldenhof & Roland Bal (2022) - Dealing With Conflicting Values in Policy Experiments: A New Pragmatist Approach - Administration and Society, 54 (9), 1736-1766 - doi: 10.1177/00953997211069326 - [link]
- Chiara Carboni, Rik Wehrens, Romke van der Veen & Antoinette de Bont (2022) - Conceptualizing the digitalization of healthcare work: A metaphor-based Critical Interpretive Synthesis - Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114572 - doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114572 - [link]
Module Knowledge
- Level
- bachelor 2
- Year Level
- bachelor 2
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW208K
Quality and Safety
- Level
- master - jaar 1
- Year Level
- master - jaar 1
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW4007MD
Quality and Safety
- Level
- master
- Year Level
- master
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW4007MV
Thesis HCM
- Level
- master
- Year Level
- master
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW4030MV
Data-Driven Dreams
- Level
- master - jaar 1
- Year Level
- master - jaar 1
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW4032MD
Data-Driven Dreams
- Level
- master
- Year Level
- master
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW4032MV
Module Knowledge
- Level
- bachelor 1
- Year Level
- bachelor 1
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW112K
ArtificiaI Intelligence in Society
- Level
- Minor
- Year Level
- Minor
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- CM9007
Integration project
- Level
- bachelor 2
- Year Level
- bachelor 2
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW205I
Academic Development & Skills
- Level
- bachelor 2
- Year Level
- bachelor 2
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW205AVV
Module Knowledge
- Level
- bachelor 2
- Year Level
- bachelor 2
- Year
- 2022
- Course Code
- GW205K